cypress for carving

Anyone ever use cypress for carving? Any recomendations good or bad would
be appreciated. thanks.

"Dan-o" wrote in
:

Anyone ever use cypress for carving? Any recomendations good or bad
would be appreciated. thanks.

I carved a sign from cypress recently - not quite as nice as redwood - a
little harder and grainier. The only real negative I encountered was that
after dimensioning (I glued up 2" X ~8" boards to make a 24" X 36" oval),
it continued to develop checks - which wasn't a big deal for me since the
sign was to be painted.

It's a good wood to use, but it will split on you. I find it better to cave
green. Also I use solid pieces rather than gluing up. I have a buddy in the
timber industry, he calls me when they cut any Cypress or Tupelo, and I go
get 'em. Whole Trees!!!. Plus you can harvest all the knees from a felled
tree!!!
My recommendation is to use a hard finish and not oil or wax... this stuff
will dry out very quickly, and you have to reapply oil every few months, not
good for a piece that you plan to sell. Also if you can find "green" Logs or
knees you will be better off to boil the wood...All the bark comes off in
sheets and the underlying wood is beautiful. Plus boiling drives out some of
the water in the wood...This seems to help with checking and splitting,
which you should get used to because inevitably it will!

One other thing...It's pretty porous wood so you need very very sharp tools.

What do you plan to do with it?



Anyone ever use cypress for carving? Any recomendations good or bad would
be appreciated. thanks.

I havent done much carving,but cypress should do alright,if you carve it
before it dries out.
Marvin

http://community.webtv.net/pinecypress/FlaCrackerCrafts