Southern Boxwood

[Ed Twilbeck]

Has anyone carved with boxwood, that was a small leaf boxwood hedge. Grown in South Mississippi, on the Gulf Coast. I have part of a bush that had died, was standing and broke off near the root. Most of the wood is still hard and clear.some sections are 1in to 1 1/2inch, for about 6 to 8 inches and then tapers down. I was wondering if anyone has used any like this, and did they have any problems with cracking or splitting.

[Janel]

Hi Ed,

 

If the wood is still green, i would seal the ends and any of the places where branches were removed. Place in a situation where the moisture can slowly go out for 2-3 years. I've got a dirt floor basement, and my branchy boxwood from West Virginia is slowly drying there. Other folks may have other recommendations for seasoning. There are posts elsewhere on the forum on this topic.

 

I have not carved the branches yet. There is a year or more to go before having a go at carving it.

 

Have fun with it!

 

Janel

[Yuri]

I stopped sealing boxwood cut ends after a bunch of sticks developed ugly grey fungus in the wood. I found that boxwood quite unlikely to crack without any sealing, and if it does, (at least with the wood I handled, which is all from one location) only springs one single crack per stick, which of course becomes one half of the cut to halve the stick. (I never use the entire round stick. That is too risky, even with boxwood. Doug Marsden carved quite a few ryushu netsukes using boxwood segments, cut across, but I never waere brave enough for that. I just worked with far too much other kind of wood, and the habit got ingrained.)

[Karl Carvalho]

In traditional Japanese post construction, a cut is introduced along the longitudinal axis. This concentrates all the stress to one tangent. . If you can accept this, it keeps checking to a minimum or 0. Otherwise, seal the ends with cheap water-based paint and leave the bark on, out of the sun with lots of airflow. That's how I prep my bowl stock.

 

Karl

[Yuri]

That's what I do with all my other timber, too. It's only box that gave me the trouble with fungus stains.

In medieval times sculptors working with oak in the round used to drill out the heart. That relieved the strain, and the sculptures can still be admired in a lot of Gothc churches around Europe. Most of them still don't have any cracks.