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Hi all,

 

I wanted to let you know about my experience with the use of basswood for miniature carving.

Quite a lot of modellers, including myself, entertain the prejudice, that basswood is not very good for miniature carving. Instead, the only timber to go for, are all sorts of short-grained, hard-growing fruit varieties.

Not true.

 

I have a carving mentor, who lives near the alps. 1 hour driving time. Every now and then I visit him for a lesson.

The typical alpine carving style is what he does for a living. Nativity scenes and that sort of thing.

But sometimes he does miniatures, just to push the borders and see what's possible.

 

From that, from practicing with basswood,  I can tell you, basswood is perfect for miniature carving. Especially, if you plan to gild, or paint it.

 

It is not as hard as the fruit timber, but still holds tiny edges. It is worked with normal, small carving tools. You need to keep them in a pristine sharp condition.

But you do not have to invest in expensive high quality dental burr equipment, if you don't want to.

This also means you can finish figures much faster than working the much harder fruits, like pear or box.

 

I am attaching a picture of a quadriga, my mentor did. That's his smallest so far. The groundplate is much smaller than my palm. Again, no dental burrs, only knives and traditional miniture carving tools.

 

Tom 

 

post-7453-0-74888800-1416236367_thumb.jpg

Tom

 

current workshop content:

 

L'Artesien, scratch

Le Rivoli, scratch

 

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that's some beautiful work...... just goes to show you, it's not the wood ,it's the carver.

Frank

completed build: Delta River Co. Riverboat     HMAT SUPPLY

                        

                         USRC "ALERT"

 

in progress: Red Dragon  (Chinese junk)

                      

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