Bryan, your channel is really a rare gem. You really do go through most things a carver needs to know. There aren't many wood carving channels and the few there are like Doug linker is not really for beginners. I love Doug, he's an awesome carver, it's just most of his stuff is for not noobies. But this stuff is really great. I wish there were vids like this when I started out. When I started carving I was a dumbass and I used a very hard pear wood. didn't know then what a huge difference wood makes.
Thank you! It means a lot that you and others are finding my channel helpful. While I absolutely love other channels like Doug Linker and Gene Messer, there are very few channels that go into full detail on helping the absolute beginner through the learning curve. While some will naturally know what to do, others who are interested may only see the end results instead and become intimidated on what they perceive to be a very difficult task. All the other channels are absolutely wonderful for showing what wood carving has to offer, but I just saw a small gap that seems crucial for bringing in more people and keeping this tradition alive. If I can help bring in just a handful of new people to whittling and wood carving, I will be ecstatic.
You're doing a real service here. I've been thinking about getting into it, and you're adding things in (buy from other carvers/whittlers when possible) that I never would have thought of myself. Thanks for the information!
As mentioned in the comments below, I flipped the cherry and walnut wood names in the video on accident. For clarity, the dark spoon shaped wood is walnut and the lightest spoon shaped wood is cherry.
Thanks for clarifying! I wondered... I used to hang out in my dad's workshop when I was a kid, and he taught me a bunch about wood. He did all kinds of wood and metal working, including carving and making furniture. He loved to carve with cherry, and to make furniture with black walnut. I learned how to carve from him, and I still have a small set of chisels and gouges he gave me. I'm watching videos like yours now because I haven't carved in a long time. I wanted to refresh my knowledge of safety, technique, and tools. I knew I needed to get a couple of carving knives, but I always used my dad's so I've never picked my own. (I ordered a couple of OCC Tools knives - can't wait to try them out.)
Learning the difference between air- and kiln-dried made such a difference! I followed along with your fox tutorial a couple of times and found myself getting super frustrated with how long it took and how hard it was to achieve what you and your knife were able to accomplish in SECONDS. Obviously there’s a huge skill+experience gap, but knowing that just because it’s basswood doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t have tough spots is a huge breakthrough for me 😁
This is great man. I just started wondering about whittling 2 weeks ago and I found your channel. Just bought some stuff to start out thanks to your reviews :)
good wood review. I learned with Chilean oak ....... it's a nightmare for tools. My two favorites are the cypress and the coihue, the coihue is an intermediate wood between the oak and the cypress, it is a precious wood.
Bass wood that grows where it gets really cold in the winter it has a denser grain and carves easier than the bass wood that grows where it's warmer in the winter.
Basswood isn't really available here in Denmark except from maybe specialty sawmills, but how about something like birch or cherry? Those trees are quite common, and sourcing wood from locals pruning their garden should be easy.
I personally love cherry! Its a few times harder than basswood, but I always love how they turn out. Just have some patience and you will have some wonderful work in the end
I was out in my yard with the dog and decided I wanted to pick up some of the sticks to get the bark off with my multitool's knife since some of it looked like it would be bad if the dog ate it while chewing I kind of found it relaxing. the stick I found didn't look like it was there long. How can I tell if the sticks in my yard on the ground are too rotted to use?
@@CarvingisFun thank you so much for the quick response I think tomorrow I'm gonna start picking up the sticks in the yard so I can shave some down and sand them for the dog so he doesn't get splinters in his mouth when we play fetch I may try and go.to the hardware store and see if I can get some small pieces of wood to start carving too
Bryan, thank you so much for the information. I went ahead and ordered from the ebay site you posted. Way more affordable than the stuff I was getting from michaels haha. Do you happen to know where to get elm blocks? I have a daughter on the way and elm is an important part of that. I want to carve her something out of elm.
I personally havent looked for elm before. You could check your local lumberyard or woodworking supply store. You might find some larger sectuons on ebay as well.
Hey thanks for the videos i really enjoy. I'm a beginner. I have tons of eastern white pine trees and a few other types of pine. So i have lots of dried and green pine. Should i buy Bass wood or just use green and dried pine? Thanks.
@@CarvingisFun Ok thanks for the advice. I didn't know that pine is less hard then Basswood. I finally had enough money and ordered a Beavercraft knife. I hope having a real carving knife. Will allow me to cut a fraction as well as yours. I have tried sharpening and used a leather strop I had. I thought my knife was really sharp. I could slice a sheet of paper. Your knives appear so sharp and cut so easily and remove so much wood. Hopefully the knife i got will help things and ill get better at honing.
I enjoyed this vid. Good info. But not to sound like a smart guy, those 3 samples you have for spoon carving. Isnt the darker of the 3 the walnut? I worked with walnut before, and it is a darker, chocolate colored wood. Just asking.
Any good alternatives to basswood? Never heard of it in my life, and it doesn't seem so easy to get in Australia. I just bought a piece of eucalyptus dowel to try out. Not sure how that will go, as it will be my first real whittle.
This video may be of interest to you! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RoqgsgkV7eU.html Also, this list may help you determine what wood to try carving carvingisfun.com/wood-hardness/
When I lived in Vermont back in the seventies, Butternut was very hard to find or buy. I don't use butternut because of that and that only, maybe because, I love BUTT NUT nuts they are kin to Black Walnut which is My most favorite nut to eat. I used to read that Tupelo is was used by Bird carvers, or those that make fishing lures. I have not tried Linden/limewood but that is very common in Europe, or was. I too live in Florida but I am not native and so, I wouldn't know what a Tupelo looks like if I had one in my yard,
Tupelo is kinda coveted down here and only grows in specific parts of florida (northern parts in the panhandle I think) The bee farmers like them for the specific honey the tupelo flowers produce I think.
As someone that carried a a knife at work for over 15 years everyday and our days. I have only one favor to ask can I see the palm of your hands. I'll give you a big old follow and I like for every video I see. Because I went from hand tools to welding in the factory and I sure miss my calluses.
Well my calluses come and go depending on how much work I physically do, since I have been wearing gloves they have been heavily reduced. Usually they pick up when I do more stone carving but I haven't done that in a year n a half as I busted my last 4 dremels. Just got in a new, more durable, rotary tool so I hope to find the time to get that going again.
I saw wood chunks for smoking food lol Do you guys think i could use that for whittling? The wood sold here are for construction purposes and the ones that arent are sold as smoke/firewood I dont live in the US so ordering basswood is too expensive with the shipping alone
I have seen peolpe do amazing work with firewood, noted it is a bit harder to carve but will get the job done. Construction wood can also be used as well. Here in the US we use pine (not sure what you have) and it is similar in density to basswood. Just dont use pressure treated wood and try and find the "premium" wood used for furniture if available. Also, basswood goes by a few other names, linden wood and lime wood are popular options. Maybe see if someone sells "carving blocks" or "carving wood" in your area.
I'm also in Florida (NW Broward), so I've a Home Depot nearby. I spoke to someone in their corporate office to find out that their "Hardwood" dowels are Pine, though the person was not able to tell me whether the Pine is Eastern white pine or Yellow southern pine. I know that "White pine" is Janka 380 (close to Basswood's 410), and Yellow pine is 870 (harder/denser). They also have a board of Ponderosa pine (Janka 460), which is a Western Yellow type pine. SO - Your recommendations, please?
I would venture a guess that their dowels are yellow pine. Its harder, but if you take your time you can get more detail in than you could with basswood because of the hardness. Ponderosa pine or poplar is what I usually grab at my local hardware stores, with a preference to the premium poplar as I like the way it looks a bit better :)
@@CarvingisFun Lowes supposedly has Poplar dowels (it's on their website, but customer service at the local Lowes says they all need to be "special ordered" - I don't believe that they have no Poplar dowels in stock). Anyway, no one at Lowes, local or corporate, knows whether the Poplar is Balsam or Yellow, just like the Home Depot people are ignorant too about whether their "hardwood", supposedly Pine, is the Janka 380 Eastern White or the harder Janka 870 Longleaf/Loblolly/Slash/Shortleaf pine. So - it's confusing. I guess that's what happens when big corporations push out the "mom and pop" stores. I suppose that I'll follow your recommendation about the Ponderosa pine board (if I can find it at HD) Janka 460 and saw it as needed. Any other suggestions? Thank you!
I looked into this a while back and didn't get a clear answer. It seems that the denser the wood, the harder it is to carve but the greater detail can be carved. The expert European carvers in the mediaeval ages apparently used large-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos) which seems to be the densest and best for holding details. Basswood (Tilia americana) seemed to be softer and easier to carve bit not as good for detail. Tilia cordata (small leaved lime) seemed to be a bit less amazing than large leaved lime. So in terms of being favoured by the pro carvers of bygone eras (which is not necessarily what a new carver wants today) it would go (best > worst): Tilia platyphyllos > Tilia cordata > Tilia Americana and I suspect for beginning carvers the ranking would be in reverse There is also a hybrid lime called Tilia x europea, also called common lime because it was the most common one, so I guess this is what most people would have used except maybe in northern countries (where T. cordata is found but not the others)
@@CarvingisFun I have a Morakniv sloyd knife, but I love the cherry handle on the Flexcut sloyd. It's a lot more expensive, but I may have to pick one up someday just because of the pretty handle, haha.
