cracks-what do i do wrong?

when i carve the wood cracks pretty easily, especially when i do details like noses etc. because of this i have to change the design during my work, pretty annoying...
what is wrong?
am i too heavy on the hand?
do i use the tools in a wrong way?
do i work too fast?

what kind of wood are you carving? How big is the piece?

Sometimes a mallet just isnt necessary if its a small cut in reasonably soft wood.

I use two hands on the chisel. One on the handle to push and one on the blade to control it. If both hands push then I often push right through the cut and break it.

i´m working on birch, the log is around 40" tall
maybe i´m pushing the chisel too hard?? i´m still a beginner so perhaps i haven´t learned the limits yet...
thanks for your answer monkeyman!

Deep down in the jungles of Bambooland
There's a place so wild you just can't stand
Spider-monkeys swinging in the top of the trees
And the crocodiles are rocking in the Crockodile-creek

[ Edited by: turbosickboy 2006-07-17 11:29 ]

you will learn what each sort of wood is capable of.

Some woods chip much easier than others. It could also be HOW MUCH material you are trying to remove at once.

Some deep cuts need to be accomplished by going at it several times to remove a little bit with each cut.

you might also look into how sharp your chisels are. Strop your chisels as the project progresses.

It also makes a diffrence how fresh the log is. If it is too fresh and very wet, when you carve into it, you allow moisture to escape Rapidly and that causes cracking. What you need to do is select wood that is more dry or cured, then it will not split as bad. Hope this helps.

thanks for the answers... i´m listening to you all

Birch is one of my faves for carving, had good "non-cracking" luck with it. It needs to sit with the bark on it for AT LEAST a year. But when it's ready, it carves like butter!
Here's a new england birch for ya...

TSB...Make sure and have some super glue gel around, too. A cyanoacrylite bond is stronger than the original wood fiber, so you can permanently reattatch a small errant chip easily. That works for detail slips if you get them. As far as cracking and checking goes, welcome to the world of wood. A tiki isn't a tiki without at least one nice crack...and there are few woods on earth except maybe palm that don't split and check. Just go with the flow. And like everyone said, dry your logs as long as possible. Some sawmills will have wood laying around that has been "yarded" or seasoned for a couple of years or more, so look for those logs.

Of course in the world of tiki where cracks abound, the Wise Crack is Most prevalent :)

thank you all, i´ll post some pictures of my new carvings ASAP

I have had a few split on me also. For the smaller cracks I have taken a scrap piece of wood and filled the crack with glue and pounded a filler piece in, or fill the split with glue and saw dust. It usually sands well and takes stain.

your problem is apparent. BIRCH. go to pine. birch splits and cracks like a mother ****.

I was reading a book about Carousel carving once and those carvers prefered white pine for the horse bodies and poplar wood for the heads and legs. I saw a totem pole carving demo once at the San Francisco Museum of Natural History and the carvers wrapped a large redwood log with a garden hose and let it mist for several weeks before they started carving. The ancient Hawaiian carvers used fresh wood and when they carved into a certain type of log the sap ran red like blood. The wood itself contained "Mana" or a spirit and carving it required a special ritual, etc. But that's a different story.
Tikiboy

On 2006-07-19 06:58, chisel slinger wrote:
your problem is apparent. BIRCH. go to pine. birch splits and cracks like a mother ****.

thanks for that information... the question is: Can i get pine here in Sweden? a lot of you carvers here use exotic wood like palm which is kind of impossible to get here

Pine är ju barrträd, så det vore inte vara nått problem i kalla nord.

Nej det är ju sant min vän... :)

On 2006-08-15 21:25, tikidreams wrote:
Pine är ju barrträd, så det vore inte vara nått problem i kalla nord.

Post som progress-pictures!
Show us the secret birch-logs.