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Essen tial Woodcarying Techniques

FlG 2.20 Arrow Crosstree (Dick Onians), carued in cotnpression wood of Cedar ofLebanon. The wood moved oiolentJy out of truć witbin an hour of the gaps being cut.

H li ART Pro BI. EMS

The heart of the tree is oftcn subject to problems and is sometimes reinoved by sawmills. LimÄ™, for instancc, may bc rather crumbly in the juvenile wood around its hcarc.

Some woods such as limÄ™, laburnum, oak, tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and walnut are also likcly to havc shakes radiating around the heart or, even worse, following the annual rings to form ring shakes for part or all of the ring (Fig 2.21). These probably arose when that part of the tree was still slendcr and subject ro being whipped by the wind. Sometimes the tree secretes extra waste products in and around these shakes which can act like cement,

Fig 2.21 Transuerse section ofa fórk in walnut. NotÄ™ the light-coloured diseased areas and the arrowed ring shakes. The ntany shakes around the typically large pith were almost certainly present in the growing tree.

so that whar appcars as a shakc is in fect no longcr an open crack but behaves like sound wood (Fig 2.22).

Soft Wood

Very soft woods such as balsa and even obeche are almost impossibly dilFiculc co carve except wirh the sharpest of edge tools, although they work adcquately with rotary burrs and abrasives. Obeclie also has an interlockcd grain, which mcans that carving has to be donc across che grain and will seldom bc smooth.

Hard Wood

Some woods, such as teak (Tectona grandis), contain minutÄ™ particles of silica and quickly duli

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