Carving is kinda a new art to me, at least, in wood. So i tend to fiddle a bit, and practice a bit in various woods before i tackle “real” projects.. trying to get the feel for the wood, for each is different. poplar is supersoft, but the weak fibers “feather out". oak, takes a lot of effort to carve, but picks up a perfect surface if you learn to understand the grains. walnut and ash..oily, hard to cut, but glides so well, and burnish so well.. sassafras, the open grain of oak, without the strength, maple an interesting mixture of good and bad traits..

so far the only wood i *hate* is pine. So here’s a few images of stuff i’ve tinkered with..rough sketches and doodles.

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While playing with oak, i learned of a concept called “tool burnishing” i find neat. Imagine, if you will, that wood fibers are like a collection of broom straws.. if you hold them loosely, and cut them with scissors, then you can still feel each point of each straw..

this is why sanding wood is often needed.
but imagine you have a tightly packed bundle of straws.. and you cut them with a perfectly sharp razorblade…

run your hand over that afterwards, and you’d feel a smooth surface..the straws are so tightly bound, they make one unit.

Strong woods, tightly bound fibers,when cut make a surface smoother than any sanded surface could ever be… a tool burnished surface feels amazing, and these doodles were some of my first exposures to the idea.

anyway, back to the images:

wonder what i should carve next?