Carving practice in MDF?

[Eshmiel]

Having acquired a variety of carving chisels and commissioned them, the next stage in my learning to relief-carve is to follow the Chris Pye YouTube carving course, which involves practicing all the basic cuts on a board of tulipwood (lime being hard to find, expensive and not already in me wood store). Following that, I'll need to practice relief carving on actual projects before attempting one in earnest.

The recommendation for practice and learning is generally to use one of the "easy" woods such as lime, jelutong eastern white pine and so forth. After I use up my last bit of tulipwood on that practice board, I have no such stuff in my woodstore. I generally scavenge timber but there doesn't seem to be a lot (or any) of those "easy" timbers to get for nowt. And they cost, from a timber supplier, rather a lot for even one plank that might be enough for three or four practice carvings.

When looking about the interwebbery spiders' nest of YouTube I came across a channel in which relief carving demonstrations suitable for "biginars" are shown. They're all fairly simple but good-practice carvings in MDF. This surprised me as I didn't think MDF would carve without breaking up uncontrollably; and that the various constituents of MDF would blunt chisel edges in no time. Yet here are these demos.

https://www.youtube.com/@Waseemwoodcarving

Can any carver shed light on this business of carving MDF? Is it a reasonable medium to use for practice? I can obtain free MDF left-overs very easily.

 

[Amplidyne]

It's only a thought, but I'd have thought anything with a resin binder would be hard on the tool edges, as it tends to be abrasive. I wouldn't be in a rush to try anything other than natural wood TBH. Others may know different.

 

[Jacob]

Having acquired a variety of carving chisels and commissioned them, the next stage in my learning to relief-carve is to follow the Chris Pye YouTube carving course, which involves practicing all the basic cuts on a board of tulipwood (lime being hard to find, expensive and not already in me wood store). Following that, I'll need to practice relief carving on actual projects before attempting one in earnest.

The recommendation for practice and learning is generally to use one of the "easy" woods such as lime, jelutong eastern white pine and so forth. After I use up my last bit of tulipwood on that practice board, I have no such stuff in my woodstore. I generally scavenge timber but there doesn't seem to be a lot (or any) of those "easy" timbers to get for nowt. And they cost, from a timber supplier, rather a lot for even one plank that might be enough for three or four practice carvings.

When looking about the interwebbery spiders' nest of YouTube I came across a channel in which relief carving demonstrations suitable for "biginars" are shown. They're all fairly simple but good-practice carvings in MDF. This surprised me as I didn't think MDF would carve without breaking up uncontrollably; and that the various constituents of MDF would blunt chisel edges in no time. Yet here are these demos.

https://www.youtube.com/@Waseemwoodcarving

Can any carver shed light on this business of carving MDF? Is it a reasonable medium to use for practice? I can obtain free MDF left-overs very easily.

One way to find out is just to go for it. Nothing to lose and you never know!

 

[mwinfrance]

Pour some plaster into a plywood tray..practice on that when it's hard..look at the plaster carving that the Arabs did / do.. Get some wood , poplar will do if you want it hardish, pine will do for practice and indeed for lots of things, look up Adam_W's stuff here , not the chairs etc , though they are superb , but the frames and similar stuff using scrap wood and planks from building work. Slices from trees are good too, even green oak carves relatively easily.

 

[Lons]

I wouldn't practice on MDF. Use common or garden pine which will help you in two ways. You will save your nice sharp edges and prove whether or not they really are sharp as they have to be to get a clean cut in pine.
If not sharp enough then sort that out first. Hardwoods like Lime, basswood, box, walnut, fruitwoods and oak will follow. Most take nice crisp cuts atart from basswood which is on the soft side.

 

[Jacob]

I wouldn't practice on MDF. Use common or garden pine which will help you in two ways. You will save your nice sharp edges and prove whether or not they really are sharp as they have to be to get a clean cut in pine.
If not sharp enough then sort that out first. Hardwoods like Lime, basswood, box, walnut, fruitwoods and oak will follow. Most take nice crisp cuts atart from basswood which is on the soft side.

Dunno you can carve in almost anything if you want to. Butter, ice, you name it!
If MDF is all you have then give it a go.
In fact I might try it myself. I've got some big pieces of cedar of lebanon I've been saving and would be a pity to waste them on my early carving efforts, if I ever get around to it.

 

[Eshmiel]

I wouldn't practice on MDF. Use common or garden pine which will help you in two ways. You will save your nice sharp edges and prove whether or not they really are sharp as they have to be to get a clean cut in pine.
If not sharp enough then sort that out first. Hardwoods like Lime, basswood, box, walnut, fruitwoods and oak will follow. Most take nice crisp cuts atart from basswood which is on the soft side.

Even pine is difficult to obtain at reasonable prices, these days. But there's plenty of fir and spruce. Also plenty of knots in it. But I may go to the local wood merchant and insist on examining all of their wider whitewood planks for one that at least has substantial areas in it clear of knots.

As you say, if my edges will cut pine/spruce/fir cleanly I must have me sharpening right.

My intention is to try to carve a first "good" relief carving, after all the practice, in cherry. I have a fair amount of that in wide-ish planks and it does have a fine grain for carving even if it is rather tougher than lime and similar. Black walnut is another possibility as I have some wide-ish planks of that too but I imagine it would need the right subject, because its so dark.

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

Whitmore's Timber sponsor this site and do have inexpensive lime carving blocks in their shop.

Whitmore

Contact them for a discount, too

 

[Lons]

Even pine is difficult to obtain at reasonable prices, these days. But there's plenty of fir and spruce. Also plenty of knots in it. But I may go to the local wood merchant and insist on examining all of their wider whitewood planks for one that at least has substantial areas in it clear of knots.

As you say, if my edges will cut pine/spruce/fir cleanly I must have me sharpening right.

My intention is to try to carve a first "good" relief carving, after all the practice, in cherry. I have a fair amount of that in wide-ish planks and it does have a fine grain for carving even if it is rather tougher than lime and similar. Black walnut is another possibility as I have some wide-ish planks of that too but I imagine it would need the right subject, because its so dark.

I know you're in a difficult area of the UK but is there any chance of picking up any old furniture, preferably free. There is an ample supply of old pine and veneered stuff around here. Try Facebook market place , freecycle, Gumtree etc.

Edit
Of course Jacob is right, you can have a go at anything if so inclined but I stick with my comment, I don't recommend MDF

 

[alex robinson]

Having acquired a variety of carving chisels and commissioned them, the next stage in my learning to relief-carve is to follow the Chris Pye YouTube carving course, which involves practicing all the basic cuts on a board of tulipwood (lime being hard to find, expensive and not already in me wood store). Following that, I'll need to practice relief carving on actual projects before attempting one in earnest.

The recommendation for practice and learning is generally to use one of the "easy" woods such as lime, jelutong eastern white pine and so forth. After I use up my last bit of tulipwood on that practice board, I have no such stuff in my woodstore. I generally scavenge timber but there doesn't seem to be a lot (or any) of those "easy" timbers to get for nowt. And they cost, from a timber supplier, rather a lot for even one plank that might be enough for three or four practice carvings.

When looking about the interwebbery spiders' nest of YouTube I came across a channel in which relief carving demonstrations suitable for "biginars" are shown. They're all fairly simple but good-practice carvings in MDF. This surprised me as I didn't think MDF would carve without breaking up uncontrollably; and that the various constituents of MDF would blunt chisel edges in no time. Yet here are these demos.

https://www.youtube.com/@Waseemwoodcarving

Can any carver shed light on this business of carving MDF? Is it a reasonable medium to use for practice? I can obtain free MDF left-overs very easily.

I have some lime I have milled - would be happy to send you some if you covered the postage.

 

[Blackswanwood]

I wouldn’t practice on MDF as I believe a key element of the skill in carving is being able to deal with variations in the grain.

 

[Doris]

Carving MDF will mess your tools up if nothing else. It ain't just wood you are carving into it, it's glue as well, lots of it.
You won't get a crisp edge either because the "wood" is too fibrous.

Surely you could find a seasoned log somewhere to split and carve. The first thing I carved in relief I think was in Tulip wood, then went to Oak, then Lime. There seems to be this general guide that everyone starts off with Lime but if you work with Oak which is tougher first then you have a far better scope on carving a variety of species of woods.

I'm sure I have a small piece of Tulip wood knocking around you can have a crack at if you can't find any. After 11 years of carving I don't really do it anymore.

 

[Doris]

When looking about the interwebbery spiders' nest of YouTube I came across a channel in which relief carving demonstrations suitable for "biginars" are shown. They're all fairly simple but good-practice carvings in MDF. This surprised me as I didn't think MDF would carve without breaking up uncontrollably; and that the various constituents of MDF would blunt chisel edges in no time. Yet here are these demos.

https://www.youtube.com/@Waseemwoodcarving

Chris Pye is highly regarded in relief carving circles. He has written many books on the subject. I had one on letter carving and it was very well written and easy to explain to a beginner. I very much doubt that Youtube channel can say the same thing and has the same experience underneath his belt as Chris does.

In other words just because it's on Youtube doesn't mean its the right way.

 

[Eshmiel]

Thanks all for the various advice.

As I first posted, I was surprised that MDF was used as a carving medium in those "Biginar" vids. As many of you mentioned, MDF is well-known for being unkind to sharp edges. So I'll not be going down that path.

I do have a tulipwood blank I've glued up from the last remnants of a tranche of the stuff I used to make a work table for my wife's many & various sewing hobbies. That'll serve as two or three practice boards in following the Chris Pye YouTube carving course video series. (I can put it through the thicknesser to make a new blank after the previous practice is done).

So ..... what to use after the practice cuts/board? I have amounts of cherry, black walnut, ash, oak and some afromosia (old chemistry bench tops) as well as small amounts of yew, cedar, beech and one or three others. I have carved oak in making various decorations, handles and the like for furniture I've made so I know its not ideal but perhaps worth practicing on since it may well be what I end up using "in anger". I must admit that I'm not fond of the blandness of lime - although its perhaps good for relief carving in that the grain doesn't overpower the shapes of what's carved ........ .

I'll ponder a while on the matter whilst I get on with doing the practice board in me bit of tulipwood.

 

[Jacob]

Thanks all for the various advice.

As I first posted, I was surprised that MDF was used as a carving medium in those "Biginar" vids. As many of you mentioned, MDF is well-known for being unkind to sharp edges. So I'll not be going down that path.

Isn't it about the carving, not the material?
Cheap and available, MDF sounds good for practice and getting your sharpening up to speed.
Get better at it and when some really nice stuff comes your way you are able to make more of it?

 

[Lons]

Isn't it about the carving, not the material?
Cheap and available, MDF sounds good for practice and getting your sharpening up to speed.
Get better at it and when some really nice stuff comes your way you are able to make more of it?

You're thinking out loud again instead of using experience Jacob. It's not a good material to practice on and there are plenty of alternatives, I've a;lready mentioned some sources and a quick word in the pub or among family often throws up free unwanted forniture in solid brown wood or pine which is far better. I had a good friend, a lifelong wood carver with recognised talent who taught beginners and I occasionally helped him. He often said that there were two main reasons beginners gave up. 1. Blunt tools and 2. Trying to carve unsuitable material. The first you are clearly familiar with, the second you're clearly not.

To the OP
Cherry, walnut, beech and oak can be carved crisply and despite what people say about oak it's been used for centuries for a reason. Yew can be difficult but will carve as can the mahoganies and ash but both will be more difficult and stringy. My very first in the roung carving was an old golfer in sapelle (I think), It's on a shelf in front of me as I kept it to remind myself of where I started, (how bad I was ). Lime might be bland but it's a joy to carve and boxwood if you can find some is delightfull for small carvings especially. I've carved most species including elm and hawthorn some rescued from the firewood heap.

Here are some simple ones all lime except the faol which is walnut. I do have letter carving examples but on a spare drive which I can't access at the minute.

 

[Eshmiel]

You're thinking out loud again instead of using experience Jacob. It's not a good material to practice on and there are plenty of alternatives, I've a;lready mentioned some sources and a quick word in the pub or among family often throws up free unwanted forniture in solid brown wood or pine which is far better. I had a good friend, a lifelong wood carver with recognised talent who taught beginners and I occasionally helped him. He often said that there were two main reasons beginners gave up. 1. Blunt tools and 2. Trying to carve unsuitable material. The first you are clearly familiar with, the second you're clearly not.

To the OP
Cherry, walnut, beech and oak can be carved crisply and despite what people say about oak it's been used for centuries for a reason. Yew can be difficult but will carve as can the mahoganies and ash but both will be more difficult and stringy. My very first in the roung carving was an old golfer in sapelle (I think), It's on a shelf in front of me as I kept it to remind myself of where I started, (how bad I was ). Lime might be bland but it's a joy to carve and boxwood if you can find some is delightfull for small carvings especially. I've carved most species including elm and hawthorn some rescued from the firewood heap.

Here are some simple ones all lime except the faol which is walnut. I do have letter carving examples but on a spare drive which I can't access at the minute.

Those animal-form carvings are very appealing. Although I'm a bit scared of carving in the round (I intend to begin with low relief carvings) those sort of "essence of a lifeform" carvings do seduce me. We have some bird-forms by a quite famous carver of such (can't remember their name) that I really, really like a lot. (I'll take and post some pics this weekend). Your animals are very similar in their capture-the-essence forms.

Carving is a wide art form, I suppose, as well as a wide-skill craft. Although I admire those carvings that reproduce very accurate life scenes, people, creatures and such, "with every hair and wen", for me the true art of carving is the ability to portray things in a less-is-more way. Perhaps the skill to carve the detail of lifeforms is in some sense a needful skill for any carving but its the carvings that abstract something more than a copy of reality that appeal most. Do you know what I'm prattlin' on about?

******************

Which timber to start with ..... I'm coming 'round to thinking I should start with what I have. I do envision myself making relief carvings of personal stuff - greatly-loved cats and dogs now dead; the daughters as children; particular friends with a face full of character (rather than botox). Cherry and afromosia appeal, as both have fine grain that doesn't shout too much. Oak too, although I imagine that needs the right subject to match its more obvious grain.

 

[joshvegas]

Why is mdf specifically not suitable.

Like specifically whats wrong with it of you want to do some carving as oppose to wanting to do some wood carving.

A homogeneous material that cuts well with a sharp blade seems okay to me when i have doodled on it. For relief stuff anyway.

Soap stone etc would also be rubbish for wood carving practice and yet people carve it.

 

[niall Y]

Carving MDF will give you experience at carving MDF. What one needs from practising wood carving is to fully understand what it is like to actually carve wood. How one makes the cuts is dictated by the direction of the grain in the material and, no amount of carving MDF is going to help one understand this.

 

[Jacob]

Carving MDF will give you experience at carving MDF.

Carving MDF will give you experience at carving. It's about sculpting shapes one way or another, that's the difficult bit.