Hey guys, my grandma died recently, and she was a damn-fine DIY-er. She left me the contents of her shop, but since I'm in college I couldn't take the big stuff like table saws and whatnot. I got a bunch of woodworking hand tools though. I want to make medieval style carvings and stuff, but the 2x4s I had laying around were too hard and I was afraid I might damage the tools (since I was having to hammer gouged in even though they were only at like a 10 degree angle).
Does anyone know what kind of wood is good for carving? I'm also tempted to go hack down a tree with the hatchet she gave me and do it entirely from scratch. I live in Florida; are there any good native woods?
Skål!
Basswood is one of the common ones afaik. At woodcraft they leave the hunks of it by all the carving tools.
>>968914
Your chisels are probably dull. You shouldn't have trouble cutting into anything softer than ebony with even a basic chisel.
If the chisel does not have a metal cap on the end of its handle do NOT hit it with anything but your hand or a special hammer (traditionally wooden or leather, modern rubber or plastic). Many carving chisels are not meant to be stuck and you will fuck them up if you do. If the chisels have long handles then they are likely lathe chisels and not meant for carving. Paring chisels are meant to be struck but they aren't made for decorative carving so they wont really help you. Pictures would really help. Like a ton. Post some.
>>968925
I will tomorrow, if the thread is still here in the morning. I'm used to slow boards like /tg/ and /his/ so hopefully it'll be here. And yeah. I did fuck them up though; I spent probably 4 hours hammering pretty hard into what I can only assume is cedar or pine (2x4's) to make my mom a tray. Luckily I have a whetstone and I only used the wide-angle (easy-to-sharpen) gouges and chisels just in case. I did fuck one up really badly as I hammered it into a screw I didn't know was in the wood, so it's dulled/serrated now. None of them have ironshod butts.
>>968914
what happened to the big stuff then? pls tell me you just didn't sell it... cause you gonna regret getting a bunch of random chisels.. I'm a Florida bro as well. [I would of taken em off your hands and returned them when you liked] lmao.
>whatnot
scares me.. makes me think she had like some sort of 24" carbide planner. and your family just kinda sold it for 50 bucks because it was heavy and they didn't know wtf it was........
As far as tree, how far north/south are you in Florida?
>>968932
Her stuff wasn't super mega fantastic. Mostly wahl, craftsman, etc. And nah, we're not chucking it or selling it. Its going into storage for later. I live in tallahassee, so there is always tons of live oak around. That any good?
>>968927
This board makes /his look like /b, speed-wise. If you're having that much trouble with pine something is definitely wrong, and I have trouble believing they'd simply be that dull, especially if grandma was as avid a diyer as you say. You may be expecting results too fast as well.
>>968914
Sharpen your goddamn chisels.
>>969100
I'm not sure it was pine. It was a little stand made of 2x4s my dad got from home depot 15 years ago, so it could be a price or cedar or who knows what. It was obviously pressure treated. And the tools are old; probably saw last use 10 years ago. Grandma was a DIYer, but in the end she got leukemia, so she wasn't really able to use them for a long time.
>>969109
Old doesn't matter if they were decent to begin with, that's actually preferable, but avoid pressure treated lumber if you can, it'll make them rust pretty fast.
These are lathe chisels. Check to see if your grandmother had a small wood lathe
>>969079
Dont use liveoak. Its hell of a wood to work with GREEN! You should be north enough. Google for black birch to find out what it looks like then go somewhere indawoods and look for it. Should be good. You're also far enough north to have basswood trees. These should be easy to find because people plant them. They have 4 pedal white flowers. About as good as carving wood gets.
skål!
>>969144
They are not. They're much too short. These are turning tools.
The ones in OP's pic are for carving.
>>969632
And not always even this. I have large chisels for timber framing work and such.
