I was in a church in Preston a little while ago and, as is my habit when I visit such places, I went to look at the carved pulpit.
Oak, and really quite detailed carved figures approximately 300mm (1 foot) tall.While I was looking at these figures I started wondering about the wood we choose to carve and why. When I look online at various forums, FB groups and so on I see a vast array of carved items and various people espousing various techniques. I see a lot of knife carvers using Lime (basswood) to carve with on the basis that it is a great carving wood which takes detail well. I must admit I really hate Lime, I find it to be too soft and to have too coarse a grain to take a really good tooled finish. It also has the most boring and characterless grain imaginable.
I really prefer to carve a hard wood like Box or a fruit wood like apple or pear. I find they are much nicer grained and you can get a truly lovely finish with just a sharp edge.
The downside to harder woods is that carving with them is slower and requires more patience with much smaller cuts. But then this also means less chance of a mistake and mistakes when they do happen tend to be smaller.
I also find that harder woods often allow much greater detail. Box, for example was the wood of choice for Japanese Netsuke carvers because it takes such tiny details.
Anyway back to the church carvings in Oak. I am truly in awe of whoever carved these. Oak is hard but often has quite a coarse grain and so small details are challenging to say the least. These figures were obviously carved by a master and I would love to be capable of the level of fine detail they achieved.
As for myself, I think I will continue to play with small pieces of hard stuff like Box and the occasional bone or antler. I love the way they come out.
This one is Box and is around 75mm high
