Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 11:42:16 -0400
From: mum-AT-philadelphia.libertynet.org (Mum Puppettheatre)
Subject: Basswood


If you get basswood from a hobby/craft supplier expect to pay an incredible
amount for it.

If you spend time with the yellow pages looking for lumberyards (not home
centers, but an honest to god lumberyard) you can pretty quickly turn up a
yard with basswood logs in stock.

Basswood is sold (except for the previously mentioned hobby stores) in
roughly finished logs. Some yards will cut a few feet for you; others
insist you buy the whole thing. I have bought 6 - 7 foot logs (about 4x6
inches high and wide) for about $80.00. This is a lot of basswood, but once
you start using it for carving you'll find it is the perfect wood for
everything.

Get the lumber yard to plane two adjoining sides for you, as otherwise it
is extremely hard to run the uneven wood through a table saw or other
device without at least one square corner.

Then, keep the basswood in the corner of the shop and save every off cut
you get as they always are usable for other things besides carving. When we
were in Romania in '93 and toured the Tandarica Theater I met a man who
keeps a piece of basswood (which is very common in Europe) in a lathe
continually and turns the various handles for rods and controls, body parts
and scenic elements. I have followed his example.

In closing I will just say that basswoods even and tight grain, relative
softness and hardwood characteristics makes it an extremely satisfying wood
to work with for the novice as well as the experienced carver/artist.

Good luck.

Robert Smythe, Artistic Director

Mum Puppettheatre
126 Leverington Ave.
Philadelphia, PA   19127-2022
(215) 482-6478  Fax (215) 482-9056
mum-AT-libertynet.org




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