Every winter I try to take the time indoors to pick up an inexpensive and time consuming hobby. I have two this year, I am learning tin whistle and I am going to try my hand again at whittling. I have a nice knife on order already, a pukko shaped whittler with about a 2 and 3/8 inch high carbon blade from Kauhavan Puukkopaja (the knife company in Finland). What I was wondering though, was what types of wood make for good learning attempts with whittling, or what types of wood people use for their hobby?

Any help or advice is very welcome, and if you have pics of your work, post them as well.

Mike

My Fiance's Uncle sells a lot of wood at carving shows. (Tuckaway Timber http://www.tuckawaytimber.com/ ) One of his most popular woods for carving is Butternut. It is also a "soft" hardwood and has similar grain to walnut (in fact some folks call it "white" walnut).

Thanks guys, that is helpful.

Here is a nice site about exotic woods with lots of content and pictures:
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

Interesting tid-bit of information- atleast to me,

John Paul II was quite the whittler in his youth and young adult life.