Source for wood...

[nchawkeye]

I'm wanting to practice carving, getting ready for my next build...Have any of you guys got a good source for maple, to practice on??

Thanks....

 

[Roy]

are you looking for scraps or stocks?

 

[rich pierce]

If you contact suppliers of gunstocks most will sell you cut off pieces. Dunlap always brings a bunch for folks to sort over when he's at shows selling stocks. Some folks like Chambers even have ruined precarves they may sell to folks wanting to practice. These are often used at classes teaching carving, etc.

It is also possible to go to the woodpile, take a piece of firewood out, chop it, plane it, and carve it.

 

[Old Salt]

Sometimes you'll find maple on pallets. Other times you'll find oak. Pallet wood is good for practise.

Old Salt

 

[Bill Bounds]

NCHAWKEYE:
I drove through western North Carolina the other week. I believe you all got more trees there, than we do here in PA.
I buy a 3" by 8" by 6 foot kiln dried maple for $42.00 @ 3.50 bd ft. I can get two shorter (32" barrel lenghth)) stocks from that. thats a lot of carving practice for $21.00 a blank. Around here ya just ask a furniture maker, or a kitchen cabinet guy where to go.
Bill

 

[nchawkeye]

Scraps are fine, don't need the whole stock, just something to start trying my hand at relief carving...

 

[MSW]

wow- i last paid 3.50 a board foot for maple (no curl- just clear) but it was just air dried. i work in a furniture factory (mostly baltic birch and melamine) and we occasionally have maple scraps. you can tell the woodworkers after a run where we used maple, we're all smiling with armloads of scrap (too small for stocks, but OK for pen blanks and the like).

good luck with your project!

msw

 

[BrownBear]

Check with a cabinet shop. Their scrap pile will put a smile on your face.