Carving Wood

[Wncman]

What is the general consensus on (for a novice) carving wood sticks. Walnut or Maple ? Maybe Cherry ?

 

[Flintandsteel]

Depends on what you’re carving.
Wood choices for a longrifle is pretty much dependent on the area it was built.
Carving does as well.
As far as “ease o carving” hard, plain, and close grain.
Hope that helps.

 

[Wncman]

Depends on what you’re carving.
Wood choices for a longrifle is pretty much dependent on the area it was built.
Carving does as well.
As far as “ease o carving” hard, plain, and close grain.
Hope that helps.

Thinking of a reasonable amount of carving. Was thinking walnut with French grey metal. Not sold on it though. Still pondering

 

[Rifleman1776]

Walnut is by far the best choice for carving. Maple, especially figured is very touchy. One "Oh-Oh!" and a beautiful piece of wood can be ruined. Never tried cherry but it is usually pretty close grained and should be OK.

 

[Flintandsteel]

American Black walnut can be VERY difficult to carve. It can be stringy and pithy. Can tend to chip out, making detailed carving difficult.
Hard, plain maple is probably the easiest. While figured maple is pretty, it can be a real booger to carve.
Dense cherry will carve well also.

 

[Wncman]

American Black walnut can be VERY difficult to carve. It can be stringy and pithy. Can tend to chip out, making detailed carving difficult.
Hard, plain maple is probably the easiest. While figured maple is pretty, it can be a real booger to carve.
Dense cherry will carve well also.

Fromm working with Walnut on cabinets I have found it like you stated. It seems to require a lot of filling in, finish etc

 

[IanH]

+1 on black walnut being a buggar. Fast-grown cherrywood is also very difficult for the same reasons, it's soft and almost punky and the fibers are very brittle and prone to tearing. It's like trying to carve styrofoam with with a stick no matter how sharp and polished your tool edges are. The native cherrywood I have here in the Texas hill country is extremely dense, hard, and fine-grained. I've done some non-gun carving projects with it and it's a dream as long as you take care to avoid pop-outs since it chips like medium-fancy maple.

 

[Robin101]

To me, a good hard piece of cherry is a joy to work with and carves nice, but in my limited experience, English, or European Walnut is the best carving wood used in gun stocks.
Robin