What is a good wood for carving?

I want to carve my friend a spoon for cooking out of wood- what kind should I use? There is a bit of a story as to why I want to make her this….so yeah. Thanks.

Depending on where you live you might be able to use local woods, the man on this site uses Maple:
http://chipshop.blogspot.com/search/label/spurtles
or http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com/Shopping/spurtle.htm

This is a site with spoons from Wales, and they talk about using maple, cherry, walnut or oak, but I am not sure if these spoons will ever be used:
http://www.waterfall-lovespoons.com/Public/products.asp?SectionId=15

And here is a site with instructions, including in the first chapter what woods to use:
http://www.spoonlady.com/hothow.htm

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 4:09 pm and is filed under wood carving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “What is a good wood for carving?”

Whit W on February 8th, 2010 at 9:42 pm

I like pine, it’s soft enough to easily sand and carve and if it isn’t too knotty it’s strong. You could use a standard 2×4 as a starting point.
References :
Droopy Dog on February 8th, 2010 at 10:24 pm

Bass wood is considered the finest carving wood
References :
Willeke on February 8th, 2010 at 11:06 pm

Depending on where you live you might be able to use local woods, the man on this site uses Maple:
http://chipshop.blogspot.com/search/label/spurtles
or http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com/Shopping/spurtle.htm

This is a site with spoons from Wales, and they talk about using maple, cherry, walnut or oak, but I am not sure if these spoons will ever be used:
http://www.waterfall-lovespoons.com/Public/products.asp?SectionId=15

And here is a site with instructions, including in the first chapter what woods to use:
http://www.spoonlady.com/hothow.htm
References :

Wood Working Shop