Which wood is most suitable for carving?

[jaru-eri]

I have recently tried to v-carve Maple and Beech, but it looks like some of the edges break in the carving process. Does that mean that these kind of wood is to soft for this purpose? Earlier I have tried Birch, and that gave me a much better result.

Does anyone else here have similar experiences?

[martin54]

I haven't had much success at all carving photos in any kind of wood, tried a few different types & still haven't managed anything I am remotely happy with, it is all down to me though as I have seen some very good results in some of the woods I have tried.

As with any carving the wood does make a difference but from what I have read there are other factors that make a big difference as well, the actual picture can make a big difference from what I have read, not just the resolution but the actual content, colours, contrast etc etc, so you need to be a bit careful about photo selection, same with most cnc work tooling, speed, feed & step over all play a part as well.
Try doing a search on the forum, there were some pretty good Christmas tree decorations posted as well as other jobs where quite a bit of detail on the process was given.

[Jozua]

Does that mean that these kind of wood is to soft for this purpose? Earlier I have tried Birch, and that gave me a much better result.

I am purely referring to your question regarding the hardness of the woods that you mentioned compared to Birch.

I refer to the Janka Hardness:
“The actual number listed in the wood profile is the amount of pounds-force (lbf) or newtons (N) required to imbed a .444″ (11.28 mm) diameter steel ball into the wood to half the ball’s diameter. This number is given for wood that has been dried to a 12% moisture content”

According to the Janka scale Birch is softer than all the woods you mentioned except for soft Maple.

Here are the numbers according to the Janka Scale:
Birch: 1260 (N)
Beech: 1300 (N) American and European
Maple: 1450 (N) Hard North American
Maple: 999 (N) Soft

As general rule the harder the wood the denser or finer the grain. Therefor the “harder” woods should theoretically cave better.

I have done a lot of V-Carving in Yugoslavian Beech and Hard Maple with 90, 60 and 30 degree V-Bits and the end result was always perfect.

The key question is: What Feed Rate do you use to V-Carve? Edge breakout normally occurs if the Feed Rate is too high for fine detail in relation to the depth of cut. Also the sharpness of the tool is critical for good results.

Joz

[jaru-eri]

I use 20 - 30 inch/min feedrate and use the chinese one flute carbide bits sold on Ebay. 0.5 mm depth in one pass. The spindle on my Taig mill can only reach a max speed at 900 r/min. Maybe is the wood I use of a lower quality or more disposed to break than Birch?

What about using 3-flute pyramide bits? Any experiences?