The prisoner

[RylandAus]

First one just abit of prActice. wood was terrible kept cracking

[woodburner807]

What type of wood, Ryland? Nice carving and detail for such a small fellow.

[RylandAus]

I’m not sure it could be a plum tree. Was just a branch out of the firewood pile

[joepaulbutler]

Well, it turned out plum nice (OH) I would have part of my thumb included

[JBright11]

Nice job on the little guy!

[mpounders]

Looks good. You often run into problems with "green" wood cracking/splitting as it drys out, especially on the ends. Green wood is easier to carve than dry wood, but the splitting can sometimes ruin a piece. It usually takes a year per inch of thickness for wood to dry out and it is often recommended to split the pieces in half as the center pith usually dries quicker and causes splits to form.

[Merle Rice]

Hi, Ryland, First off , Welcome , glad to see you your first Carving and getting Involved in our Great Hobby, hope you stay around and have fun like the Rest of us are doing . Merle

[uvawyo]

Nice, i like those eyes

[Eddy-Smiles]

Interesting. Doesn't appear if you took the easy way out in your carving attempt. I've found that when I carve canes and walking sticks I always cut the limb way over sized to allow for end cracking and splitting.

[Glenn Jennings]

Hi Ryland
Well you are off to a good start. Pretty good for a first attempt mate. My first attempt was a bit of a disaster. Do yourself a BIG favour and import some basswood blocks from USA. It is just wonderful to carve and well worth the expense of getting it in. You can find the stuff in kits but from what I have heard some of the quality isn't as good and the blocks are pretty
small so better to get it from one of the major suppliers. Ed did tell me who he got his from who was a lot cheaper than Shaaf tools where I got mine from. The quality of the wood from shaaf was good. I lost the note I had it written down on. Brain fade!!

[Claude]

The two main suppliers recommended by most people on here are https://heineckewood.com and http://www.loesshillssawmill.com/sto...ing_Stock.html I don't know if either will ship to Australia, but it's worth a try to contact them and see. I use Heinecke, but I understand that Loess Hills has equally good wood. Always make sure it is Northern Basswood. Southern basswood is darker, more pronounced grain, harder, and can tend to split.

Claude

[Mark N. Akers]

Ryan,great start,yes sometimes the wood controls what you carve,very nice.

[JerseyGirl]

Great start, Ryan! Keep going… it’s a wonderful learning journey!

[pallin]

Welcome to WCI, Ryan. Branches of fruit trees may give you problems. The stresses on the top side of the branches are in tension, while the under side is in compression. The results may vary with tree species. For example, this figure is carved in a piece of Aspen limb: No cracks, no warping. The limb was dry; perhaps releasing the internal stresses. 6 inches tall - whittled in 1971.

ClimberB.jpg