Elm fro carving??

[Dave Parkis]

I have never carved before, but I want to make a sign for my shop and I thought I'd give it a try. I have a LOT of American Elm that has been sawed into 6/4 slabs and I thought I might use a piece for this sign. Since I've never carved before, I thought I'd check and make sure I wasn't going to try something really difficult to start with. I do have access to some pretty good carving tools, so that shouldn't be an issue. Any advice will be appreciated.

[Mark Strom]

I have worked with red elm and it was stringy when worked with machinery, steambent really nice and was not much of a problem to carve. Just make sure your tools are sharp and keep in mind the open grain areas could cause problems with small details.

Mark