I need to know how to get wood.

[FuzzyDunlop]

here you go
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2397828&page=29

 

[Imaginer]

Oak for carving is not quite good, the grain is readily easy to split and isn't as tight and big. Intricacy can only be done so much with oak.

Maple, is a good, cheap choice stocked by many lumber yards, and the aforementioned Rockler and Woodcraft. Maple is where you find some of the desirable burls you may see (curly maple).

A good reference in fully understanding wood, how it is composed and the handling due to the composition, the different species, etc can be had in this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-...rstanding+wood

It is fully encompassing reference that dives into all things wood. A good read and a part of my library.

 

[phucheneh]

Thanks for a surprising number of helpful replies...somewhat unexpected for a niche topic. Apparently, I do have a Woodcraft in my city. Never would've even thought to look for something like that. Much like how I recently had another craft hobby come out of guns (holsters) and discovered that I actually have a leather craft store nearby, too.

Any, uh, by the way, anyone who thinks they're clever by pointing out the suggestive nature of some of the things in my first post...yeah...that's...the joke. I was aware.

I'd definitely like to get some nice maple to work with. I carved a set of grips out of a hardwood floor sample from Home Depot and they turned out rather excellent. Not that hard to work, sturdy, and after repeated oiling they are like glass. Just not that interesting, appearance-wise.

I'll head over to Woodcraft today and see what they have. Surely something. Still want to get some of those sweet, sweet burls off of eBay. I would love to get a big chunk of rosewood burl, which is unfortunately DAMNED expensive.

Here's some 1911 grips done with rosewood burl:

Goddamn magnificent, that stuff is.

 

[phucheneh]

So they didn't have anything super exotic, but I got some pretty stuff.

Notably, paduak, which reminds me of tulipwood. Very orange and has an awesome sheen that will look great oiled. And a big honking chunk of purplehart. Already sliced a piece off to mess with...goddamn, this stuff is like steel. Pretty, purple steel.

 

[Away]

Take the blue pill.

 

[skyking]

I go to Edensaw in Port Townsend. They supply woods for yacht interiors, among other things. They have 40' by 6' Sapele logs sawn into 12/4 slabs and stacked back up. A builder will come in and buy a slab, send it to be resawn and build an entire yacht interior from the same slab.
The showroom has 50 species of exotics on racks.
Unfortunately they do not have it all online.
http://www.edensaw.com/MainSite/Store1/StoreProducts/ProductList/1574

Look at some of the turning blanks as well. The guy I talk to in the showroom would probably help you on the phone.

 

[Tiamat]

So they didn't have anything super exotic, but I got some pretty stuff.

Notably, paduak, which reminds me of tulipwood. Very orange and has an awesome sheen that will look great oiled. And a big honking chunk of purplehart. Already sliced a piece off to mess with...goddamn, this stuff is like steel. Pretty, purple steel.

Many of the exotics can cause allergic reactions like skin rash and itchy throat. When sanding and carving,I would recommend wearing a 3m 6000 series respirator mask. An air cleaner nearby would be helpful as well. Something as ghetto as a box fan duct taped to a square 3m filter usually used for furnace/home HVAC, to a $300 consumer grade HEPA air purifier with carbon prefilter, to a $500 3/4hp workshop squirrel cage blower with two stage filtration.

 

[ctk1981]

Some woods need to be stabilized, depending on what you're going to do with the wood....for example, gun grips and knife handles/scales should be stabilized. Dense woods and or oily woods generally do not.

Wood:

https://www.bellforestproducts.com/ -- good assortment of wood and sizes, fair prices when I ordered from them.

http://www.arizonaironwood.com/ -- oh boy, nice stuff but the price will reflect it. Very dense hardwood....doesn't need to be stabilized, but probably doesn't carve the best.

Wood stabilizing:

In the world of knife making, somewhat like heat treating....there are only a handful of places that are continually recommended. Here is one.

http://www.stabilizedwood.com/

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

So they didn't have anything super exotic, but I got some pretty stuff.

Notably, paduak, which reminds me of tulipwood. Very orange and has an awesome sheen that will look great oiled. And a big honking chunk of purplehart. Already sliced a piece off to mess with...goddamn, this stuff is like steel. Pretty, purple steel.

paduak is probably like carving concrete. You seem to be looking at a lot of very hard woods. If you are using power tools I that's OK, but I'd think you'll be doing a lot of sharpening otherwise.

Of course basswood is the classic carving wood, but if you are looking for something of a harder nature you might consider walnut.

 

[schmuckley]

I would check with boat hardware makers and tree services/sawmillers/loggers.

 

[phucheneh]

paduak is probably like carving concrete. You seem to be looking at a lot of very hard woods. If you are using power tools I that's OK, but I'd think you'll be doing a lot of sharpening otherwise.

Of course basswood is the classic carving wood, but if you are looking for something of a harder nature you might consider walnut.

Purpleheart is pretty damned unworkable, I've found.

Paduak is not that bad. Dense, but predictable. Not the stringy, oily mess that purpleheart seems to be.

What I'm really liking, so far as effort versus result, is bubinga. Very unassuming and not expensive. Durable but not impossible to work with. But looks freakin' great once it's got a bit of oil on it.

About the reactions to dust, I've read about that with a few woods I've messed with, but have yet to have issues.

 

[skyking]

I can mail you a couple of small chunks of sapele to check out for postage.
I like the way it works with power tools. Have not hand carved it yet.

 

[phucheneh]

Here is my second ever completed set of gun grips. Bubinga with a couple coats of oil applied today and buffed out a bit. I could get this wood like glass, given a bit of time.

Next up is gonna be some 'Bolivian rosewood' (which I think means Pau Ferro) grips for a snubnosed Colt.

 

[schmuckley]

I have a 1-ton piece of Rosewood

 

[phucheneh]

I have a 1-ton piece of Rosewood

What kind? Send you prettiest flatsawn chunks, please.

I finished that set of grips and made a set out of bocote for my Tanfoglio.

I am becoming a bit of an expert at this, it feels like. Going to run out of guns soon. Trying to think of something else to make out of wood. I have trouble with pure 'art.' I gotta start with something that has some kind of function...

 

[phucheneh]

Little tweaking to the Tanfo grips and a light polish. Just been rubbing Danish oil (Watco) into them. I spent way less time on these than on the previous two sets (and a couple aborted attempts), but these have come out the prettiest, by far.

 

[lxskllr]

That's pretty nice work. How are you doing the contours? Eyeballing it?

 

[phucheneh]

For the finished side of the grips, yeah, pretty much eyeball (and feel- how it feels in the hand is pretty paramount).

For the inside, I'm using a small router...CZ-style grips are somewhat complex on the back compared to something like a 1911. Takes multiple passes, erring on the side of caution, to get the depths right. Extra detail done with files and a couple plain sharp chisels (used more like knives).

I end up with a plain block of wood that sits properly in the gun frame. A roughing knife and a course file to get a little detail...everything stays a little oversized till I'm near the end...then finer files and a small orbital sander (would use a DA, but my air compressor is small and loud) to do stuff like get the contours on the back of the frame.

 

[BUTCH1]

Yeah oak sucks to work with. Particularly red oak. It's so...strandy? It doesn't particularly cut well and is a bitch to do anything smooth with it on end grains.

As far as where, most recognizable is WoodCraft.
http://www.woodcraft.com/

Most big cities have one. If they don't have a species you want on hand, they'll order it. It's usually decent quality but you'll pay for the convenience.

It's dense and tough though, I used a piece as a motor mount for a 50cc bike engine, never had any problems with it moving or cracking.