Persimmon

[Sealeveler]

I received some persimmon from a friend.Has anyone used it for carving.Tony

[timf67]

I haven't carved with it, but it turns well. It is fairly dense so it may be hard to carve?

[CarvedTones]

I made one bow with it, sort of. It was one of my first and I did a lousy job and it ended up in the scrap pile. It wasn't much different than shaping hickory, but a little easier. I hand carved the string nocks to look like arrow heads. It worked well enough that I have the rest of it set aside, not specifically as carving stock but I would carve it if it had the right look for something. Mine has tiny worm holes with black dots around them. They had more of an effect on the strength of the wood than I realized, which was a major factor in the failure of the bow.

[Truefire]

Persimmon turns so nicely and has a very unique sweet smell when being turned or otherwise machined. I don't know if it could me carved for the texture is somewhat different that that of your typical carving woods. It develops fraying between the growth rings that might create a nuisance when being worked slowly with carving tools but doesnt' create any problems when being machined at relatively high speeds. Just needs to be sanded afterwards. Try it, i would like to know how it turns out myself.