Chapter 3

Wood for carving #2

Honduras Mahogany (43 lb.). There are various species of mahogany, but from the carver's point of view the characteristics  are similar. It is a good carving wood and of a beautiful rich red color. The grain is usually fairly straight. It does split rather easily and care must be taken in carving when this tendency is apparent. Mahogany glues well and takes a fine polish.

Red Maple (38 lb.). A wood with easy workability, red maple is used in woodenware, cabinetwork, and furniture.

Silver Maple (35 lb.). This soft maple is employed a great deal in trim and paneling.

Sugar Maple (42 lb.). This wood has a fine natural luster and is quite stable when properly dried.

Oak (43 lb.). For hundreds of years oak has been esteemed as one of America's finest woods. Although it is not eminently suited for small detail, it lends itself well to bold carving. It resembles ash and sweet chestnut in grain character.

Northern White Pine (25 lb.). Finely textured and of the usual yellow-white color of pine, this is an excellent wood for carving, because it is both easily worked and inexpensive.

Ponderosa Pine (28 lb.). This wood has a fine grain and finishes well. It is quite soft and of easy workability. It is a preferred material in paneling.

Sugar Pine (25 lb.). Like that of most pines, the wood of the sugar pine is a yellowish white in color, straight grained, and durable. A soft wood, it is easily carved by hand and will present no difficulties to the beginner. The grain of this pine is particu­larly stable and even.

Indian Rosewood (54 lb.). Rosewood is a rich, dark brown with dusky blackish markings and sometimes has a purplish tinge. It is hard and heavy and takes a very fine polish. It is excellent for carving but not inexpensive to buy. It is often used in the manufacture of musical instruments, billiard cues and fine inlay.

Eastern Spruce (28 lb.). A soft wood, with fair workability, it is especially favored for its soft and satiny texture. Although it is a strong wood, this spruce is not decay resistant. It is used particularly for making patterns and musical instruments.

Sycamore (40 lb.). Sycamore is white but turns light brown in the open air. It is very easy to carve. The grain is straight and indistinct. If used out of doors it should be protected against the weather as it rots very easily. It is fairly hard and is used for rollers, table tops, and textile machinery.

Teak (41 lb.). Teak is a rich golden brown. It carves readily but has a rather coarse and uneven texture. It is durable under almost any climatic conditions. The wood contains aromatic oils which act as a preservative. Its tough nature tends to blunt tools. The grain is straight but undulating—a quality peculiar to trees grown in dry soils. Teak is grown in India, Burma, and other countries of the Far East.

Black (American) Walnut (38 lb.). This wood of rich color and distinctive figure makes beautiful carvings for fine furniture, veneers, and cabinetwork. It is a hardwood.

Willow (30 lb.). Willow is straight grained, soft but tough. The wood is whitish to pale brown in the center. It seasons without difficulty and is suitable for carved toys.

Yew (46 lb.). Perhaps the most beautiful of the conifer woods. It is hard, with a fine decorative grain, excellent for wood carving, cabinetwork and turnery.

Procuring wood

With a little enterprise a small stock of wood suitable for carving can soon be acquired. Aim at collecting sound, dry timber. Visit large carpentry shops in your district where you may find that you can buy off-cuts for a few cents. Not all timber yards deal in seasoned woods, so inquire about this before buying. Large mahogany table legs from Victorian pieces may sometimes be found, also newel posts and thick wardrobe panels that can be utilized for carving in relief. If you are prepared to spend some money on a stock of wood and to buy seasoned timber, contact a firm dealing in a variety of woods, including hardwoods. Four inches is usually the maximum thickness of the planks supplied by such firms. These large merchants will not as a rule sell less than one plank which may be 9 or 10 ft. in length. If you do make this kind of investment, you will have enough wood to make a dozen or so small carvings. Do not despise the pines and firs which are often loosely termed 'deal'. Many of them have a very beautiful grain and can be polished if the grain of the wood is well sealed.

The grain of wood as it affects carving

The grain of wood has a bearing on carving in a visual sense and also in a practical way. In some woods, such as boxwood, the grain is hardly visible and also tremendously strong, close, and even in texture.

Fig. 5. Diagrams showing the strength and weakness of the grain. A. Tangential section in Douglas Fir. B. Cross-grain section in Douglas Fir. C. Cross-grain section in African Walnut. D. Structural use of grain in toys.

Other woods in this category are rosewood, ebony, and sycamore. In such woods fine detail can be cut in any direction without fear of a fracture. In figure 5, A, you will see a small piece of the tangential section in Douglas Fir, that is the grain fibres are running down the length of the section.

This gives strength. B shows a cross-section in the same wood: this is weak and if a similar piece is less than 1 in. square and 5 in. or more in length, it can be snapped very easily by manual pressure. C is a drawing of a piece of black walnut 1 in. x 3/4 in. x 5 in., and broken in the hand.

You should take care, therefore, to design your carving with an eye to the direction of the grain. For instance, if you are carv ing an animal and the base, from one block, with the legs joined to the body and base, they will be fairly strong even if the grain runs across the legs.

Fig. 6. Italian 'penny' toys; Yootha Rose collection.

If, on the other hand, the legs are free without a base, as in the Italian penny toys illustrated in figure 6, the grain must run the length of the legs. These toys were sold in the Italian markets during the 1920's and 30's for the equivalent of one penny. If you look at them, you will notice that the necks are thick and the noses rather short and the tail of the dog is at an angle. This means that although carved from one piece, they are very strong. Only the cow's ears and horns are made of separate pieces of wood and glued in. These would certainly have broken off if carved from the main block. Cross-grain weakness is not confined to the softwoods. Hardwoods, such as oak, are very brittle in cross-section of less than 1/2 in.

A diagonal run of grain is fairly strong and, as forms in carving do not necessarily run at right angles to each other, you are bound to find the grain running diagonally in many places. Also, the grain does twist and turn in some woods. In small work, such as toys, I would advise you to use close or straight grained wood with no knots, however small.

Ornament carvers, when making delicate carvings such as wall-light brackets, sometimes laminate sections with the grain of each piece running in the opposite direction to that of its neigh­bor. When glued up, these pieces support and strengthen each other. In figure 5, D, you see a method of making toys in eight sections for the sake of strength, the grain in every case running the length of the thinner parts of the horse; the ears, legs, tail and body are all in separate parts. This type of toy is usually cut out on a fret saw, glued up and then carved by a knife in the hand. I have used a similar method of construction in making a carved horse in mahogany for a restaurant sign. The pattern of the pieces will vary according to the design.

In many woods, such as jarrah, which grow under very dry conditions, the grain is often wavy but straight in direction. This type of grain in no way impedes carving. Woods such as lignum vitae, have an interlocking grain and turn well on a lathe but can be difficult for an inexperienced carver. In carving lime wood, apple, beech, cherry, sycamore, pine, oak, and mahogany, you will not find any serious difficulty as far as grain is concerned, provided you remember the strength and the weakness of wood described in this chapter.

Carving a log In the previous chapter I have discussed the seasoning of wood and the desirability of using dry timber. There is a great risk of splitting if this latter rule is not observed. However, I do not overlook the fact that you may have a log of wood in your garden just asking to be carved. If you are willing to take a chance on its opening up then by all means go ahead. Cracks are not necessarily disastrous and can be filled. I have heard of carvings splitting completely in half but you may not be so unlucky. First bring the log under cover and jack it up on wood blocks in a cool dry place. If you can leave it for some months, do so. Many say that a log should be given a year's seasoning for every inch of its diameter. I have heard a timber merchant say that the center of a large log is never seasoned. It is not easy to make rules about this as so much depends on the type of wood and the humidity of the atmosphere. In any case you should not hasten the process of drying by exposing the log to direct heat. If you paint the cut ends it will help to prevent splitting. If a log is kept in the dark, in for instance the cellar, and then suddenly exposed to the light, splitting will often take place. I know this from painful experience.

In medieval times wood carvings were often made from the trunks of trees that had been hollowed out from the back. This enabled the wood to contract and expand. If, therefore, you hol­low out the center of the log it will help. This is not easy but you can bore a few holes up through the center with the auger. This may prevent the star shakes shown in figure 4, F. In the oak carving by W. Soukop (plate xvi, page 56 ff.), the figure is built in sections and the center of the wood removed.

A carving in a large log of wood, such as elm, may develop cracks, but the wood is very tough and the whole mass holds together. When carving just to please yourself experiment with any wood available, remembering that most of the fruit woods are excellent for carving. Do not, therefore, turn your apple or cherry tree into logs for the fire.

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