Carving Substrates (carving)

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Posted by Jon Harl on February 17, 2004

Besides HDU and Redwood what other carving woods/materials would you use for exterior applications.

D. Bernhardt

Hi John and boy this could be a big subject if you wanted. I still carve woods and like others never got used to hdu. Cam does great stuff in it and see fine work being done everywhere but it does have a "look" if you can call it that. As far as what lasts outdoors I have a small somewhat inacurate way of making judgements. If there is alot of pitch/resins like mahogany redwood red cedar walnut and lots of others...it's likely good outdoors. In my climate I'd stay away from basswood oak and white pine however nice they are to work with. Of course finishing has everything to do with how something lasts but appropriate woods and panel prep. are equally or more important for durability. Good luck with your projects!

Mike Jackson

Hi John,
I never liked carving foam. It grinds and sands nicely, but I hated tring to carve it. I enjoyed carving a nice piece of redwood. I think many people around the country carve mahogany and I spent some time in Jay Cook's shop in Vermont where he hand carved and router carved "butternut". It was nice stuff, but harder to get in Wyoming. A long time ago, there was a guy in Louisiana carving stuff called "spanish cedar". I think Dusty Yaxley used it for a while down in Florida. It had a strange texture and I never really cared for it.

Mike Jackson

Robert

Jon
Mike is correct....I don't like carving sign foam because of the extremely quick ways that it dulls the edge...plus the yucky gritty feel it leaves all over my arms, to say the least of it making the floor slicker than snot.
BUT!...it is the most stable and easiest material to work with when sculpting...and I use it a lot at a fraction of the time it takes to do it in wood.

As for the different species, historically, the great sculptures of Italy, Spain, England used linden wood, otherwise known as basswood. It is stable, consistent grain and very stable.

If properly sealed and maintained, any wood is great outdoors. Yes, wood like butternut is great...soft and a beautiful grain but it is becoming a very hard wood to get a hold of. Mahogany (Honduras, not Phillipine) is also a great choice...cost is lower than most american woods and is available in decent widths.


The key is to get something soft so it does not take forever to carve it.
Just SEAL IT!

Hope this helps

Robert

John Grenier

In my neighborhood, Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I use northern white cedar it grows here and it carved nice. It is used for docks and fence posts. I like the knots that it has and also I like to leave tooling (carving) marks it is then made in a fashion that can't easily be duplicated using router tables. Let the computer guys make the really smooth letters using HDU.
John Grenier

Cam Bortz

Mike, if you haven't carved HDU in the last few years, try it again. SignFoam in particular has improved tremendously over the years.

To answer John's question, I always liked genuine (Honduran) mahogany for carving outdoor signs. It's fairly stable, carves well and holds detail, and finishes nicely. The lion's share of my carving has been HDU for the past few years, but I still like mahogany best for natural-wood signs.