Customer Reviews

Rockler Basswood Carving Blank Assortment, 20 lbs.

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a must buy for anybody new to wood carving. The amount of beautiful Basswood I received was wonderful. I can practice away learning techniques without any consideration to loss or waste. I bought this box to learn. Twenty pounds is a lot of lessons. The wood is clear of knots. The Basswood is very fragrant and wonderful to work with as a beginner. For 35.00 delivered to my door, I recommend anybody invest in this quantity for their beginning work. At this point, I have no idea how this wood would hold up to an expert carver's opinion but I have a lot of time before I need to worry about that.

I was very pleased with the good selection of sizes of basswood in this 20 LB box. The quality of the wood was also very good with very few pieces showing bark, deformaty or damage- it was all usable wood. Most of the pieces were 4 side surfaced. I have ordered some more basswood from a 'carving supply company' at the same time- this wood is equal in quality to the carving stock wood...and is much less expensive. The only reason to order 'carving stock' would be to obtain specific sized wood. For everyday whittling and carving...this is the stuff.

Let me get one thing out of the way first. The quality of the wood is excellent. In the shipment that I received, the wood was clear, with only one or two pieces showing minor edge defects. With few exceptions, it was finished on all sides.

Now why, if I'm so happy with it, did I only give it 4 stars? The reason is very simple. Unless you usually carve using large blocks of wood, you'd better have a way to cut it down into thinner pieces. Except for one small board (and I'm reaching by calling it a board) this "assortment" contains nothing but fairly large blocks.

So, if you want to use the wood for carving plaques or other items requiring 3/4" or thinner wood, you're going to have to saw this stuff down. To do so accurately, you will need a bandsaw or a table saw.

Again, although this is a very good value (it's actually cheaper from Rockler) be aware that you might not be able to use it for general carving without some prep work.

I received my basswood assortment two business days after it was ordered. I couldn't wait to see what was included, as it is kind of a grab bag sort of thing. I was thrilled when I saw inside the box that actually weighed 22 pounds. There was a huge assortment of pieces, all of them useful. There was nothing that I would consider to be a scrap. The smallest piece was 3/4 x 2 1/2 x 12, and only one of them. The largest was 4x6x8. The average was probably (1 1/2 to 2) x (2 1/2 to 3) x (15 to 18). A couple of the huge pieces were only planed on three sides, but I don't use the wood to the outside edge anyway. There was however, no "plank" stuff if you are into larger relief carving. The largest piece in that regard was 4/4 x 4 1/2 x 16, planed on all 4 sides. I figured there was $100-$125 of wood compared to my local outlet.

I ordered this wood on Monday 10-11-10 about noon... The next day Tuesday 10-12-10 my order was here before noon.... Unbelievable.... And this is a very good selection of wood at an great price.

Price was great. The blocks were much bigger than expected, which led to DH getting a new bandsaw to cut them. But, he's happy. The wood works great for his carving projects.

Short and to the point: The basswood blocks are far better than expected. It will be a joy to cut them, carve them, and otherwise have a ball with a carving knife. The big chunks are perfect for all kinds of critters and thing-a-maflojits.

A Large amount of basswood. wonderfully large pieces. prompt shipping. FANTASTIC PRICES !!

This company receives top ratings and rightfully so. Fast delivery and quality carving Basswood is what you will get. My delivery had the perfect piece of wood in it as if I told them to special order cut it for me. I am a very satisfied customer.

Vic

To be honest I wasn't impressed with this collection of wood.

All the pieces are long rectangles, and there were only 2-3 cube shaped pieces.

There were a half dozen filler pieces so small you can only carve little figures out of them.

One of the filler pieces was cracked down the middle.

Honestly I won't be buying a box of whittling wood from them in the future.