...setting up to carve hard baits, what wood(s) do you recommend?

[VanBass]

Hi from Ontario; Canada! 

I've dabbled in carving plugs since I was a kid - mostly small lures (1 to 2 inch long) for panfish carved from spruce construction lumber. Retired now, have lots of time to make lures. 

Wondering what woods you would recommend - I have access to a variety of hard and soft woods (maple, birch, beech, poplar; basswood, cedar, white pine, spruce) and would like to lay in a stock for the winter carving season.

I'm particularly curious about the suitability of poplar as I have a couple of 16 inch trees that I have to cut down. 

I fish smallmouth bass, walleye, panfish and pike and expect that 80% of my lures would be diving plugs less than 6 inches long with the remainder being top water plugs, jerk baits and gliders. Guess if I had to narrow it down to a particular style and size of lure it would be a 3 1/2 inch Rapala "Shad Rap".

Thanks in advance!

Van

[Hillbilly voodoo]

Welcome from Alberta Canada (unless you voted for Trudeau lol)

Personally I like cedar but sometimes you get stuck chasing the grain a little. Poplar and basswood are options I have heard good things about but I have not tried them 

[Anglinarcher]

Popular has a habit of expansion and contraction due to temperature, etc., so I have heard bad things about it..... never tried myself.  Going with a lighter wood allows for more ballast flexibility, and like hillbilly I like Cedar.

BUT, I am a terrible wood carver, so I prefer to use resin.

 

[ravenlures]

Depends on what you want to do with your carvings. If you want to look at them I would go with basswood, if you want to make a lure for reproducing with a mold then basswood or maple, if you want to make them too fish with I like white cedar which is good for all depths with proper weight maple is also good for deeper depths. Then there is the size of the lure you want too carve small lures balsa is what you should be carving. I am not a carver but use the tools that I have band saws, wood lathes, and sanders plus hand work. I make my musky lures out of white cedar then go to silicon mold then white resin making of the lures.

Vanbass welcome to a bunch of good and help full guys.

Wayne

[Outlaw4]

of the one you listed Basswood will carve the best. Its really nice to cut and will hold screw eyes.

cedar is good, it carves fine and is arguably the best lure making wood.

you left out balsa and its not great for carving but it makes good lures, but needs though wire preferably, but not always

a lot of lures get made out of poplar and are fine. if you have some id use it as that is cool to use what you have

In general for diving plugs your lighter woods are best, balsa, basswood western red cedar etc...

top waters are pretty forgiving and is a good git for poplar, i prefer western red, or Alaskan yellow cedar here 

gliders are a good spot for maple or other harder hoods

[VanBass]

Thanks for the input guys!

Looks like cedar and basswood at the top of the list with maple for special baits. That’s good as I have quite a bit of those woods cut and dried 

@ Hillbilly voodoo - NO didn’t vote for Trudeau ...don't get me going LOL!

@ Anglinarcher - I’ll do a bit of research into poplar (as I like the grain and hardness of the wood) and post anything I find out.

@ ravenlures – I’ll be making lures (mostly) to fish them, might make a couple for display if I get skilled enough to make something worthwhile. Thanks for the welcome!

@ Outlaw4 – yes, I skipped over balsa. All the woods I listed are ones that I can harvest off of my property. Figured that basswood, being a bit harder and finer grained would be a good substitute for balsa. I do have some balsa that I have been using to make fly fishing poppers and will try a lure or two with it.

Cheers!

Van

[Travis]

Personally this would be a easy decision.  Any of the woods you listed could be used a fine lures can be made. However, one wood has pretty much  dominated in respect to knife work many, many years ago.... basswood.

   

 

 

 

[mark poulson]

Read this thread before you decide:

 

[VanBass]

Thank Mark!

I read that thread, interesting but for now I have lots of wood and no PVC.

I'll definitely try PVC once I get some experience with wood baits.

Van

[mark poulson]

17 hours ago, VanBass said:

Thank Mark!

I read that thread, interesting but for now I have lots of wood and no PVC.

I'll definitely try PVC once I get some experience with wood baits.

Van

I went to PVC after I couldn't find a wood sealer that would hold up on my jointed swimbaits.  Thank you again JR Hopkins!

[JD_mudbug]

 

Welcome to the site.

I use poplar a lot and like it. I use the round and square poplar dowels from the big box stores. The dowels are cheap, easy to carve, and kiln dried so you don't get too much expansion and contraction.

My favorite wood to use is western red cedar. It is a bit harder to carve than poplar due the grain. The smell makes it great to work with. I use it mostly on bigger baits, 5" and up and 1+ ounces. It has nice combination of strength and action.

As you will be harvesting the wood from your property, I would search Youtube for ways to dry your wood. Maybe you could setup a small solar wood drying kiln or a dehumidifier kiln. Try to harvest your wood in advance of making a lure to allow for drying. Otherwise, you will end up with a lot of cracked lures or cracked clear coats from expansion and contraction.

[Travis]

8 hours ago, JD_mudbug said:

 

Welcome to the site.

I use poplar a lot and like it. I use the round and square poplar dowels from the big box stores. The dowels are cheap, easy to carve, and kiln dried so you don't get too much expansion and contraction.

My favorite wood to use is western red cedar. It is a bit harder to carve than poplar due the grain. The smell makes it great to work with. I use it mostly on bigger baits, 5" and up and 1+ ounces. It has nice combination of strength and action.

As you will be harvesting the wood from your property, I would search Youtube for ways to dry your wood. Maybe you could setup a small solar wood drying kiln or a dehumidifier kiln. Try to harvest your wood in advance of making a lure to allow for drying. Otherwise, you will end up with a lot of cracked lures or cracked clear coats from expansion and contraction.

Easiest method for lures is just microwave.  Small pieces can be dried by a few heat cool cycles in the microwave.  Common practice with some wood turners.

For carving I will take air dried wood any day over kiln dried. 

Very easy to just mill a few fire logs and stack/sticker and air dry.

[VanBass]

@JD_mudbug

Thanks for your comments! 

I have quite a stock of dry basswood, cedar and several hardwoods to get me started carving baits but I will definitely be re-sawing a bunch of poplar to put aside to air-dry.

As Travis mentioned, I can always microwave-dry small pieces of poplar to try. I do have a moisture meter to check the wood with.

Van

[VanBass]

@Travis

"Very easy to just mill a few fire logs and stack/sticker and air dry"

LOL! Glad that I'm not the only one stealing logs from the firewood pile to re-saw for projects! 

Van

[Big Epp]

Great input here! I use what's available and have tried all sorts of stuff. I prefer basswood and cedar. I've found basswood gets "fuzzy" sometimes and needs a little extra sanding. Sanding dust from cedar can be a respiratory irritant, so be somewhat cautious.

I like to make little "bug" lures for panfish, and I've been using some redwood I got from a demo job I did. It carves like butter and is exceptionally buoyant. Problem is its not commercially available where I am located, so once I'm out I'm out.

[Travis]

7 hours ago, Big Epp said:

 I've found basswood gets "fuzzy" sometimes and needs a little extra sanding.

If power carving this can be an issue.  Never had any issues with a knife.  That said a quick pass with a propane torch, lighter, etc.. will get rid of the basswood fuzz.  Can also give quick spray of shellac then sand if getting caught chasing the problem.

[KeepinPeace]

Free is the best type of wood. I’ve used pine and oak pallets and even came across old cedar pieces from a junk kids swing set. Since you are just starting, pine pallets are numerous and you can afford mistakes. I enjoy the buoyancy of the cedar, but the pine is easier to use in smaller crank baits I’ve made. Good luck. Check out the YouTube channel engineered angler . Guy has great tips 

[Big Epp]

On 8/18/2021 at 11:12 PM, KeepinPeace said:

Free is the best type of wood.

Agreed! I learned a lot about wood and carving using this method. It's also important to note that "free" doesn't always mean "trash." I've gotten free redwood, mahogany, basswood, and plenty of other quality pieces. Keep your eyes open and you never know what you'll find.

[Dock Shuey]

You can dry pieces of wood in a regular home oven pretty quickly. I put wood for all my guitar bodies and necks in at 300(f) and leave them in overnight. In the morning I turn the oven off and then take the wood out later in the day.

Everything comes out dry and very stable. But this process "crystalizes" wood, some species more than others. This crystallization brings out good properties for tonewoods in guitars but does tend to make them more brittle than normal. This might not be ideal for carving.

[Big Epp]

I wonder if that crystallization is similar to what they call torrification. Basically changing the properties of the wood with heat so much that it becomes way more stable. They do it with some wood doors.

[JD_mudbug]

I wonder too. I am always on the look out for trees struck by lightning. Roy Hobbs says lightning wood is the best wood to make anything out of.

[Dock Shuey]

13 hours ago, Big Epp said:

I wonder if that crystallization is similar to what they call torrification. Basically changing the properties of the wood with heat so much that it becomes way more stable. They do it with some wood doors.

Torrification is a more involved process that uses higher temperatures and a zero oxygen environment, but for the average home woodworker the results are more or less the same. Bringing the moisture content of wood down to zero makes it much more resistant to future changes in humidity.

In some woods, particularly the spruces, bringing the moisture content to zero with heat causes the wood's resins to crystallize and gives the wood a higher strength to weight ratio, but also makes it more brittle.

The only reason I know about this stuff is because most of my woodworking experience has been in building guitars. Using the heated drying process on the spruce soundboard of an acoustic guitar gives an instrument that has a more desirable tone and is much less prone to deformation due to humidity changes.

[Travis]

One should be aware of the initial moisture content of the piece of wood to start.  If we are putting in the oven a typical air dried or even kiln dried piece of wood that has acclimated we are looking at that 6 to 12% moisture content and will have much better results at 300 F.   

Trying to dry a piece of green wood at 300 is going to problematic. From a woodworking standpoint much lower temperatures are preferred for this application.

Torrification process specs frequently show 20 to 30% decrease in strength.

I have always wanted to build and acoustic guitar (don't play but would learn).  Watched several videos and read some other information and likely is on my list of things to do.  I don't expect it to be great for the first one but really enjoy the process.  I do have a box of big leaf maple book matched backs to see if anything is useable as I assume they were seconds from a larger guitar company.

[Dock Shuey]

Absolutely right. Green wood should have its ends painted and then stickered and allowed to air dry for one year per inch of thickness for the home wood processor. 

Torrefiying the wood is generally done at near ignition temperatures and is the reason the oxygen must be removed from the atmosphere. Torrefied wood darkens throughout because there is a slight burning of the wood which is why it turns brittle. But it retains or even increases its strength to weight ratio which makes it good for guitar making.

As it relates to lure making, wood that has been dried to 0% moisture content loses most of its ability to reabsorb moisture and so won't expand and contract and crack finishes as easily as wood that still swells in humid environments. 

[mark poulson]

Is that related to fire hardening wood?