This is what wood I use for wood engraving. Please note that in this post I am talking about wood engraving which is different from woodcut printing and requires different wood!

(I explain the difference in this article)

What Kind of Wood to Use

Wood engraving requires end-grain wood blocks. They should have an even hardness all the way through, and be of a dense wood with a completely flat and smooth finish on the side you will engrave.

They are more expensive than the kinds of wood you use for regular woodcut printing and are usually smaller because you are limited by the size of the tree round and the nature of the engraving process overall.

Benefits

The hardness of the wood along with the fact that it is end-grain rather than side-grain means that you can achieve incredibly fine detail and that the grain of the wood is not interfering with your engraving marks so you can engrave in any direction.

The back of an English Boxwood block from Chris Daunt

Where to Buy It

I buy all my wood blocks from Chris Daunt’s website. My go-to woods are Lemonwood and English Boxwood. I recommend buying a practice pack first to see which woods you like, and to practice your mark-making and handling of the tools before starting a large block. He sells practice packs and custom sizes of rectangular-shaped blocks.

Chris Daunt is based in the UK but does ship internationally.

Round blocks

It’s not written on his website, but from time to time he does have the round blocks (like in the photo above) available to purchase - email him directly for availability.