Q. I find it difficult to sharpen my chisels, can you tell me what the best sharpening machine is to buy for some one on a tight budget.

A. I am unable to answer this one, as I do not know. I never use a machine to sharpen my chisels. But, if it is keeping the razor sharp edge on your tools then I can help. I use a piece of hard wood and cut the profiles of my chisels into it then sharpen them in the profile cuts using buffing compound, cost is nothing just a scrap of hard wood.

Method: take a chisel and cut out a groove with it about two to three inches long. Cut the groove so that the whole of the chisel is level with the top of the timber. When you have finished, reverse the chisel and repeat the other way up. You should now have the chisels profiles cut in the timber; add to these grooves some buffing compound and rub your chisel along the grooves. Two or three strokes like this should keep that razor edge.

Timber for Woodcarving

Two of the most often asked questions are,

Q. What woods can I use, and is this timber suitable for woodcarving?

A. I have decided to answer this in a little more depth than normal. The selection of timber for carving is based on a number of criteria.

             Availability and ease of working being the two most important, but we can also consider density, grain and colour.

            Popular woods for carving are usually of a low to medium density because of the ease with which they can be worked, such as, English lime and American butternut; however, as always there are exceptions to the rule. I.e.  Boxwood; hard, very dense, but excepts extremely fine detail; some woods have a natural oiliness which aids in there ability to be worked with hand tools, like Australian White beech.

             A popular misconception is that sculptors will use timbers with very little figure and that timbers with a highly figured grain and colour are only for wood turners.

This is absolute nonsense; a conspiracy perpetuated on to the world by wood turners in order to keep the best timbers in the world to themselves. I personally prefer to work in highly decorative timbers from all around the world; the only thing is with the very difficult timbers, I tend to do a larger amount of the heavy work with a rotary carver. (Welcome to the 21^st century)The timbers that fall into this category are normally the burls and some roots, though sometimes wildly figured grains are easier to work if you use the rotary carver as well.

            Basically the selection of timber all comes down to the experience and adaptability of the carver; any wood can be carved, all you have to do is decide whether or not it will be worth the effort or cost in time.

Q.  I found this log; or my friend has said I can have his tree!

A. These questions or statements usually preclude to the next statement; can I carve It.!              Who knows! Because there are so many questions that need asking before any answer can be even considered, but the most important should be is it worth keeping, and moisture content, and what is it?

The moisture content of green wood is far too high normally for any use. However, you can use this rule of thumb; for every inch of thickness, it takes approximately one year to dry, depending on the species. And as for, what should the moisture content be;  it depends on where you live, and can vary from 10% to 15% or in dry areas 9% to 12%. As for, is it worth drying your self, well! I would ask the following questions.

One: - is the tree unusual- hard to obtain or rare?

Two: - can I put it some where out of the weather with good air circulation for the length of time it needs to dry?

Three: - does the tree have some unusual shape or characteristic that makes it worth keeping.

If you can honestly answer yes too all then go ahead and keep it; if not use it for fire wood or give it to someone who can use it.

Q. Is there any quick way to season wood?

A. No! Not really, air-drying and kiln drying all take time. But saying that if you wish to work green wood you can speed up the drying process by using PEG; its expensive, but if you think its something you would like to try then I would suggest that you carve your sculpture almost to the finished size and then soak it in the peg solution. Otherwise, you will only be making expensive sawdust.