Recent Comments

Yes Rick. You can't have too many tools!

Very good point Rick! Thanks for adding it.

Mary is currently at a place with very limited connectivity but says she forgot to add the solvents warning she usually makes and will add it to the video next week.

Hi Pam, Bob Easton chiming in here because I know that Mary is currently at a place where connectivity and reception are poor. She might come along later and add more comments.

All woods have grain changes that we need to deal with. The difficulties are in how fine the grain, how tight the grain is, how likely the grain is to split, and how straight the grain is.

For example, basswood is very fine grained and usually quite straight. That makes it perfect for learning and for a lot of finished artworks.

Mahogany and walnut have coarser grains than basswood and are harder. They endure better and we like their colors better. Yet, they "behave" well because they have grown slowly, producing tight grain that has almost even density between layers. That leads to clean cutting as long as one "stays with the grain." (Remember the donut lesson.) They are also fairly straight grained. We could dig deeper into differences of individual types of mahogany, i.e. Hoduran -vs- African, but let's leave that for another day. You might watch the Newport Shell videos and see how Mary deals with grain problems even in mahogany, one of our prized woods.

Poplar, while still technically a hardwood, is a different story. It grows faster, leaving alternating soft and hard layers that tend to split more easily. And when it starts to split or break, it is stringy and brittle, not the things that woodcarvers like. 🙂 Add to the tendency to split the variability that comes with fast growing trees with a lot of limbs and we get a lot more curve and sweep in the grain, sometimes even swirl like patterns. It all adds up to make poplar tough to carve. But sometimes the carver doesn't have a lot of choice when working with someone else who makes the decisions about material. Poplar is plenty durable for many purposes, but doesn't finish well with stain or varnish, and we most often find it used for things that will be painted. It's cost is much less than the finer woods, hence the tendency to use it where natural color finish is not critical.

I know. Long answer. Yet, the point is that while changing grain direction is a factor, so too is how tight and coherent the grain structure is.

This is a short video, intended as an introduction to the full episode. It plays for about 54 seconds. Now, hit the "Videos in this lesson" link to see the full thing.

Mark,
Glad you're enjoying the videos. I also am a visual learner - that's probably why I started these videos - it's how I understand.

The process of sharpening is exactly the same for a fishtail. Just make sure you don't twist the tool too much, or those nice sharp corners of the fishtail will be rounded over.