Questions and Answers about Woodcarving

The cheapest basswood I buy comes from a lumberyard for furniture makers, and it arrives on a semi truck. For a board or two, Woodcraft, a seller you find on Amazon, or the pro desk at a big box store are easier roads. Each one costs you something different, and that is the first question answered in this lesson.

Did somebody tell you to carve basswood, and then you could not find it anywhere near you? Are the prices online scaring you off? Somebody on Instagram asked whether I know a good supplier of basswood blanks, and I absolutely do. Six more questions came in around the same time.

Where to look for basswood

• Woodcraft is easy and expensive, mostly because of shipping.
• On Amazon, go around the listing to the seller and ask for a direct price.
• Big box stores can order it through the desk where contractors shop.
• A hardwood yard serving furniture makers costs the least.
• Expect a minimum order.
• A big enough order comes on a semi truck with the shipping already inside the price.

Where can you buy basswood online?

It all depends where you are located. By the way, where are you located, the one who asked me? I am in the United States, and there are a few different places I can buy. Woodcraft is one of them. You can always order from woodcraft.com, but it is going to be expensive.

They charge that much for a reason. They are not trying to take your money, and they don't make much on basswood. Shipping it to them and from them is what costs.

Another place is amazon.com. Some suppliers sell basswood there, and it is not cheap either. There is a trick, though, or not a trick, an idea.

If you see someone selling basswood planks on Amazon, find out who the person or company is and contact them directly. You don't have to buy through Amazon. Ask if they will sell to you directly, with some discount.

Most of the time they are just people, business people, and like everybody else in business they are really open to it. Really open.

Can Home Depot or Lowe's get basswood?

Not off the shelf, but often through the pro desk. In the United States or Canada, go to the desk where all the contractors shop at Home Depot, Lowe's or Menards, and ask whether they can get basswood.

They usually can. They search for vendors and find someone able to sell it to them, and then it comes to you, because most of those vendors don't sell directly to customers.

Which lumberyard carries basswood for carving?

A yard that supplies furniture makers, never a construction yard. A local lumberyard is another source, and I don't mean the big box stores. Basswood is a special wood, and they don't usually sell it to construction companies, so a yard that serves builders mostly won't have it.

Search online for "hardwood lumberyard," because those usually specialize in hardwoods. Ask if they have basswood. If they don't, and they sell to furniture makers or cabinet makers, they are usually able to get it.

That is going to be much cheaper than woodcraft.com or places like Amazon. Usually the lumberyards for furniture makers are the ones that sell it.

Is there a minimum order for basswood?

Usually, yes, because a yard like that cannot sell you just one board. They usually require a minimum, they really do. In my case the minimum used to be $300, and right now it is up to $500.

I usually buy lots of material, because I work on projects like the one on my bench, and I kept carving on that big acanthus panel while I answered. I spend thousands in one batch. That way I don't pay for shipping, since they send a semi truck to my shop and the shipping is already covered in the price.

Order the thickness the way the yard counts it. For the grape onlay you need eight quarter material, 8/4, which is about two inches, 5 cm. The tray of blessing starts from one block of 8/4 basswood too, 51 mm or 2 inches thick, and the hazelnuts come out of one solid block of American basswood.

Why basswood at all, and what else carves well, is in is there such a thing as bad wood. My teacher did not believe in bad wood. He believed in a dull edge. Walnut, cherry, basswood and lime all carve beautifully under a sharp tool, and all of them fight a blunt one. So when the wood seems to be the trouble, go and look at your steel.

Basswood is also what the old masters carved. Lime in Europe, linden, basswood, it is the same thing. The flowers and fruit of Grinling Gibbons are lime, mounted on a dark oak ground. For a first piece you need only one knife, a scrap of basswood and a way to clamp it, which is where first cuts for beginners starts. A beginner does not need a bench or a mallet for that first piece.

Which is better, a straight gouge or a fishtail?

Both do the same job, but a fishtail gouge reaches places a straight tool can't. Look at two number 9s, both about a quarter inch. Both are marked 6 mm, supposedly, and one is still a little wider than the other.

The straight one has a long groove on the inside, so you can use it pretty much all your life, until that groove runs out. The fishtail only has the tail of a fish at the end, a blade that widens at the edge, and the rest is just a stem.

There is a third type too, the longy. Also a number 9, 14 mm, half an inch, it just tapers. Put a fishtail number 7 of 14 mm beside a longy number 7 of 14 mm, and the sweep is exactly the same.

The difference shows on the carving. Say I need to get through a hole and carve inside it. With a fishtail I go in, rotate, and create my cut right on the inside. A straight tool or a longy gets into the hole the same way, but I can't rotate it, so I can't carve all around.

That is how I do my deep excavations, with a fishtail. The second advantage is that I can use just the corner, and get into tiny spots where a straight tool won't go. Number 9 is the sweep I use most, and a fishtail number 9 gets me inside the smallest areas.

What a fishtail is used for in a whole design, the tight junctions where a cut must land without touching its neighbor, is its own page, Hashemi flowers 32.

Is wood carving just digging in wood?

It adds a lot more than digging. Wood carving is the ability to think in the three dimensional world, to see what two dimensional people don't see.

Don't get me wrong. Every human being is able to develop that, because we have the same brains. I believe we were created by the same God, and the human brain can do far more than we use. Most people simply never need those parts.

When I teach in person, in Florida for example, most of my students are over 50, in their 50s and 60s, though some are in their 30s and 40s and once in a while somebody is 18. People in the second part of life know they have to stir up the brain, because they don't want to lose their memories.

Drawing and painting work in two dimensions. Carving works in three, and I believe that is why it wakes up parts of the brain the others never touch. It trains the brain to work in 3D, and I believe it grows new brain cells. It beats depression too, and it keeps you busy and thinking. In my opinion it beats all the TV shows. How much of the news channel can you watch, worrying about what is going on? Let's concentrate on the beautiful things.

How do you fix a carving you broke?

With glue, if you chip a part you did not want to lose. I use a small bottle of it, and I glue the piece back if it needs to go back.

It has happened to me, absolutely. Absolutely. I have broken some stuff. What I do after a break, and how a break can turn into a change of design, is in Greek acanthus 13 and grape onlay 10.

Do you protect a carving from the oil on your hands?

It depends on the project, and on how I am going to finish it. If the piece will be painted, or if I plan to stain it, I don't do anything, although it is a good idea to protect it anyway.

Dust is no problem in my shop, because I use hand tools only and there is no dust. From your hands, though, it is a good idea to protect a finished section.

When I finish one section of a carving, I lay a cloth or a paper towel over it and just continue working on the next part. Gloves are another way, and sometimes I carve in the white gloves painters use. The problem with gloves is that I can't grab my handle, so usually I don't wear them.

Body oil is not really the biggest problem, either. When you touch the wood, even with absolutely clean hands, a reaction happens inside it, oxidation, and it becomes darker. One piece I showed has never been finished at all, no finish ever went on it, and I had to protect it, absolutely.

Gloves before the delicate stage are also the subject of keeping a carving clean.

Is it better to be original or to copy others?

It depends what you mean by original, and sometimes I don't quite understand what people mean by it. You are still original even when you copy someone else's work, because you are still you, and nobody can replicate your tool marks.

Personally, I don't copy anybody else's work. On my school site, though, that is exactly what people do, they copy my work, and a certification program shows me whether a person is able.

I encourage you to start with copying. You will understand much better what the carver did, the wisdom and the logic behind why they did it and the way they did it. Then you can start developing your own. Nothing wrong with that.

Even when you copy Gibbons, the shapes stay his, while depth, tool marks and every judgment about shadow end up yours. Copying one of the great masters is the whole first class of the Gibbons course, and designing your own is the design course.

What bevel should a gouge have for carving oak?

For oak, a hard wood, you most likely have to use a mallet. I don't measure the angle, I eyeball it.

Mallet or no mallet, the hand test is the same. How thick your mallet is matters too, since the bevel you establish depends on how you are going to hit. The test I trust is my hand. Put your hand underneath the handle, grab it, and your knuckle should almost touch the wood while the edge is already starting to bite. How long a bevel should be, measured in millimeters rather than degrees, is in the Maine sharpening class. A bevel about 10 mm long, edge to heel, three eighths of an inch, is the length I teach there, while 5 mm sits too high and tires your shoulder, and a few tools run out to 20 mm.

Some of my own bevels are really extreme, a lot longer than that. One of my gouges, turned to the camera, shows a really big bevel. One gouge still carries a permanent marker line I drew on it, just to show how long its bevel runs.

All seven answers, and every lesson they point to, sit inside the school. More quick tips are in the rest of the techniques course.

Got a question about wood of your own? Ask me.

Shall we carve?