My first foray with cottonwood bark - carves like butter! Lamp “lit” with gold leaf.

When I asked what can I carve you this was the request

thinking about painting it

I'm mostly a spoon and figure carver but I've been trying my hand at some relief carving. Any constructive criticism from those with experience would be gladly welcomed.

I'm currently working on the wing so I know it's rough and fuzzy at the moment and I'm not happy that I took the tip of his beak off but I'm quite happy with it so far.

It's carved onto a small bed slat which I'm quite sure is beech.

Do pneumatic die grinders work well for woodcarving? I already have one and am wondering if it would be a good starting place for power carving or if I should just save up for a electric one like a Foredom.

That's a wood knife from Olfa and I like to cut with cause it has a retractable knife. But I never seen anyone use it or something similar. Do I need to buy a normal/average carving knife ?

i sharpened this knife at one point. I’ve stropped and stropped but it just feels like it’s to no avail. it just sort of feels hard and blunt… it’s carbon steel, should i just get the stone out and try to hone it again? or keep stropping?

Has anyone tried these knifes or have any comparison on them vs the Flexcut carving knifes?

I am just looking to get into the hobby and went shopping for my first knife. They are both around the same price point but I like the aesthetic of the Japanese traditional knife much more.

Can’t find anything online about this “brand” of knife. Even the Lee Valley description is vague

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/carving-tools/knives/45740-traditional-japanese-carving-knives?item=60D0401

This is a question for those of you who harvest and dry your own basswood...I recently found a tree that was taken down by a larger tree during a windstorm. I was confident that it was basswood because of the bark, and because basswoods are fairly abundant in this forest (unfortunately, no leaves had survived by the time I discovered it).

However, when I started cutting it into logs, I was surprised to find that the wood had no smell. In my previous experience harvesting basswood, the wood had a noticeable and distinctive smell (a smell I find pleasant and would describe as exotic and spicy), even after it had air dried for a while. This had me doubting whether it's basswood.

The most obvious alternatives (given the other trees in this forest) are aspen and red maple. I've ruled out aspen because the magnified endgrain has visible rays, which is true of basswood but not of aspen. The lack of any sapwood-to-heartwood color variation makes it look more like basswood than maple. It also carves like butter, although it's still got some drying to do.

This was a fairly young tree--about 8 inches/20 cm in diameter. Is it possible that the distinctive smell of basswood only occurs once the tree gets more mature???

I’ve been using a flexcut detail and roughing knife to experiment with carving small figures I want to move onto spoons/bowls and larger projects

Has anyone had any experience with this brand/this set? It’s quite cheap which I think would let me get to know the type of tools I want to use before I go and buy a better quality tool (to stop me from buying loads of expensive good quality tools that I end up not using much) I mainly wanted a gouge and a v tool for detail so this set has what I need I think Any advice welcome

Hey guys! I’m looking to get into whittling and my knife budget is 100usd (I have a separate budget for wood and sharpening supplies). What 2-3 knives should I get? I’m guessing at one of them should be a general carving knife.

Thanks guys!