The best woods for carving

The debate between carvers that prefer different types of wood will and always be ongoing – there are simply too many options to choose from. There is no certain answer to the question “What is the best wood for carving?” since that depends on a variety of factors – the conditions where trees grow, the preferences of a particular carver, so on and so forth. You can guess yourself how difficult it would be to tell people that there is only one option better than the others based on my subjective opinion.

However, what I can do is that I can tell you what’s important when you choose the carving wood, what to pay attention to and what’s certainly the best option for beginners who are still learning and haven’t developed their personal taste for one kind of wood or another yet.

The best woods for carving: what to consider 

Okay, so now when we are talking about it, you have to remember the importance of choosing proper wood to work with. It’s your main instrument in carving: indeed, there are tons of tools but none of them will make a perfection out of a piece of inappropriate wood (at least, it won’t stay that way for long).

Types of wood
There are two groups of wood in general: soft types and hard types. Generally, soft types are more common in carving since they are easier to work with, but a lot of more experienced carvers start switching to the hard woods for learning, experimenting and improving. So, if you are a beginner, the best woods for carving for you are the soft woods. And if not, you can start tinkering with something harder as you go.

Density
The density of wood is quite important. In warmer temperatures trees grow unlike in cold, they have less growth rings because of warmth and humidity of the air and that leads to more unstable wood. This doesn’t mean you can’t carve with southern wood but you’ll have to adjust the way to carve. So make sure you know where the tree you are buying was cut down or at least don’t buy a bulk until you try out the supplier and are confident you can work with their product for real.

Moisture
This is the moment where you will also find different opinions on the matter – some people prefer green wood to dried one and vice versa. Both of the options have their pros and cons: greenwood is softer than the dried one so it is easier to carve, but as it dries out it can crack and that will damage your carving whereas you won’t have that problem nearly as often with the wood that’s already dry. There are ways to deal with cracking but it’s an additional issue in your workshop so it’s worth thinking about before you begin.

What is the best wood for carving if you are a novice?

After reading what I had to say before you are probably ready for my answer: it’s soft wood. The most common to use amongst carvers, especially the ones that are only starting, is basswood. It’s a quite neutral territory to learn and experiment with, to find out which techniques do what and what inspires you the most, so I’d suggest going with basswood for some time until you are ready to spice things up a little.

I’ll share with you some of my personal favourite suppliers so that you can see for yourself what basswood looks like and what you should expect from it. Hopefully after you’ll be able to answer the question “What is good wood for carving?” yourself.

BeaverCraft 10 Basswood Carving Blocks Set

This is not the first time I’m making a review on BeaverCraft’s products and I’ve gotta say that I’ve never been left disappointed with them. This block set includes 10 pieces of wood that come in 2 different sizes, making it easier for you to be creative while searching for new ideas. They are a Ukrainian company and were founded in order to provide people with affordable products of appropriate high quality and they remind us about that a lot with their goods, tutorials and all kinds of stuff made for carvers. The wooden blocks are smooth and evenly cut, usable for carving immediately.

To sum up: European premium quality basswood, a bigger set for your satisfaction, nice and smooth. Isn’t expensive, but can be considered not cheap as well and the sizes of the blocks aren’t satisfying to everyone.

JoePaul’s Crafts Store Premium Basswood Carving Kit

As I already mentioned, having proper wood will turn your whittling experience into a much more pleasant thing. And this kit is able to help you out with that. Two different sizes of wood blocks in it give you an opportunity to do more things, the wood is cut evenly and is good to go for carving right away. Their basswood is cut down in Minnesota so you receive authentic US product of high quality. JoePaul’s is a family-owned business that cares about its customers.

To sum up: great basswood, authentic to the US, will be good for creative approach since it has 2 various sizes in the set, but not a big set at that and if you want to purchase more at once – it might be a better idea to look for something else.

Arteza Basswood Carving Blocks

Arteza is overall a quite famous manufacturer of art supplies, not only for carving. They are popular because of their quality and the scale of manufacturing. A lot of professional artists use their products as well. So it may be a sign of quality proof for their wood blocks. Of course, the company has a reputation to uphold so it’s no wonder they have mainly great reviews on the blocks. In one set you receive 5 smooth wood pieces for carving.

To sum up: a set too small to be satisfying but has a great quality, especially if you are a fan of packaging more than wood. However is a great choice if you only need a small amount of blocks – for example, if you don’t carve often.

Thiecoc 12 Basswood Carving Blocks

Thiecoc is a small lumber mill in California that provides American Linden basswood pieces sets. You get 12 blocks of 3 various sizes so if you are looking for a bigger addition to your wood stock, this will be a nice choice. Basswood is smooth and kiln-dried, pieces are light and even. The wood here is perfectly suitable for carving of any skill level since softwood is usually the number one choice.

To sum up: great big set, 3 different sizes, authentic American product. Will be harder than air-dried wood so needs more effort to carve and can be too much if you don’t carve often or do the same things with the same sizes.

Magicfly 12 Basswood Carving Blocks

Magicfly seems to value the flight of imagination the most (no pun intended, really): they offer 12 blocks of 4 different sizes. So you’ll be able to choose from a lot more options depending on your mood and projects. They send the block set with a fancy-designed box and a card so you’ll be able to order this as a gift as well which is always a nice bonus. Pale basswood is easy to paint and finish without any issues.

To sum up: can be used as a gift due to the great fancy packaging, has a nice variety of sizes and a great quantity. But it is more expensive because of the wrapping.

In different countries different wood is common for carving, that’s not a surprise. In southern countries, you won’t find basswood that easily but you may carve with olivewood, for example. That’s why I thought it was worth mentioning.

If you ask yourself “what is the best wood for carving UK?”, then the answer would be limewood. Limewood is basswood from another continent, so the names are different but the qualities are almost the same. “What is the best wood for carving NZ?” answer would be Heart Kauri because it has a straight grain with very few knots. And for the question “What is the best wood for carving in Australia?” the answer would be the various types of pine since basswood is hard to come by there. 

And since you can also be curious about other types of carving beside the general or in-round one, when asking “What is the best wood for chip carving? you’ll hear that the harder woods are more suitable for the job: for example, something like mahogany.

Conclusion

Choosing wood is quite important for a pleasant carving time. Make sure you consider all the options, get some advice from your neighbors or friends that know what type of wood is the best in your area. Don’t stress yourself too much about it though. In carving enjoyment is a big part of the deal and if you don’t mind putting extra effort in case the wood isn’t as easy to work as you hoped, you’ll have no problem enjoying it as long as you keep carving.