Re: Parana pine ?

Why not try on a practice piece of each timber and then make your
selection?

I suspect you'll find the oak is the harder of the two to work unless
it's green, but I have no personal experience with parana pine.    I
would guess it would carve OK as long as your tools are very sharp and
you don't leave too much unsupported end grain.

--
Geoff Beale
Extract digit to email.


"Andy Dingley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I'm no carver, just a furniture maker.  I'm about to make a small
> chest, in a medieval reproduction style. This will be decorated with
> some simple carving, either chip carved roundels or gothic arcading
> (like a row of church windows).  My timber choice could go either way
> at the moment, either oak or parana pine.  The parana is there because
> I've got some just the right size, it's less brittle than the oak
> (English Q. robur), and it's a reasonable simulation of the old-growth
> pines that an original chest might have been made from.
>
> Now I'm not really familiar with parana pine, but I know that's it's
> rather hard going to hand plane, yet close grained and seems to take a
> good surface finish.  What's it like as a carving medium, for a novice
> carver ?   Should I go with the oak instead, because the oak will be
> easier to work (now there's a novelty).
>
> --
> Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods