Bette wrote:
>What kind of wood are you using for moku-hanga?
For hand-carving, I have used (may have missed a few here):
* Cherry plank (wonderful carving and mostly grainless printing
-- see "Jessica Seated" for example)
* Appalachian cherry plank tends to print a bit blotchy due to
figure -- can be reduced/eliminated by sealing with shellac or other
-- see "Dojoji Maiden" for sealed example),
* Maria Arango's 3/4" cherry plywood (for her puzzle
collaborative -- not bad carving, actually),
* oak plank (very pronounced grain but difficult to carve due to
big variation in knife resistance in open vs closed grain areas --
see "Mother and Child" background for example),
* walnut plank (didn't care for its carving characteristics at
all and gave up on the block without printing),
* shina plywood from McClain's (mild grain printing and carves
like butter -- see "Fisherman and Wife" black key block for example)
* cypress (slightly aromatic and oily carving with some hard/soft
areas and prints nicely -- see "Rachel")
* Spanish cedar plank (very soft and very easy to carve, tendency
to splinter, prints similar to luan with pronounced grain see
"Jessica Reclining"
* basswood plank (very soft and easy to carve, prints pronounced
blotchy due to grain figure which can be eliminated by sealing with
shellac or other -- see "Dana Seated" background for unsealed example)
* hard maple (very resistant to carving, prints similar to cherry)
* luan plywood (sometimes called 'door skin' very resistant to
carving, especially the glue layer which tends to be VERY hard and
brittle, prints pronounced grain -- see "Fisherman and Wife" sky and
water for example)... I usually glue it to 1/2" plywood support
before carving in order to make handling and warpless printing easier.
* birch plywood (resistant to carving similar to cherry, prints
subtle woody grain similar to what you see on the block)
For large blocks (machine carving), I mainly use full or quarter
sheets of A2 or A4 (prefer) 1/4" (1/2" for reductions) plywood:
* cherry (grainless),
* birch (woody grain), or
* ash (very pronounced grain)
I lightly sand with 400 grit (big random orbit sander) after
outlining but before clearing in order to shave off any fuzz at cut edges.
-- Mike
Mike Lyon
Kansas City, Missouri
http://mlyon.com