kamagong
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2001
- Messages
- 10,935
I'm thinking of trying my hand at making a ball-in-cage. I heard that a good wood to use is basswood, but I haven't been able to find any locally. I chanced upon a woodworking shop nearby though and stopped in this morning. No basswood blocks, but they had an assortment of other woods. I saw olivewood, cocobolo, claro walnut, ebony, desert ironwood, pau ferro, lignum vitae, rosewood and a few other others that I can't remember.
I picked up 2x2x6 block of cocobolo. I have no experience carving this wood, in fact I have no experience carving apart from whittling a few fuzz sticks and making the occasional walking stick. I know cocobolo is considered a hardwood, but this block looks pretty nice and I think it should make for a handsome ball-in-cage. How hard is cocobolo to work with? Am I being daft and overly ambitious? Should I just save myself the aggravation and wait until I find a suitable piece of basswood?
Do you guys have any tips for a whittling newbie? I'd appreciate any help you can provide.
Here is the knife I'll be using for now, my Eye Brand stockman.
I'm going to pick up a whittler one of these days. I'm looking at the Queen half-whittler and the Case Swayback in CV. I'll probably get both.
Thanks in advance for the help.
- Christian
I picked up 2x2x6 block of cocobolo. I have no experience carving this wood, in fact I have no experience carving apart from whittling a few fuzz sticks and making the occasional walking stick. I know cocobolo is considered a hardwood, but this block looks pretty nice and I think it should make for a handsome ball-in-cage. How hard is cocobolo to work with? Am I being daft and overly ambitious? Should I just save myself the aggravation and wait until I find a suitable piece of basswood?
Do you guys have any tips for a whittling newbie? I'd appreciate any help you can provide.
Here is the knife I'll be using for now, my Eye Brand stockman.

I'm going to pick up a whittler one of these days. I'm looking at the Queen half-whittler and the Case Swayback in CV. I'll probably get both.
Thanks in advance for the help.
- Christian