Essdee MasterCut, Carving Block 4.0/MC3, 200x150x4mm, White, 2 Pieces

Speedball's Speedy Carve is a fab product but it's also pretty pricy so I have been searching for an alternative for stamp making for a while now and decided to give Essdee's Master Cut a try. I was specifically looking for a compound for the stamping of block and motif down onto paper rather than a material for use with the paper on top and use of a barn or etching press. I'm happy to report this product perform well as the former and although I have yet to try the later I think it will perform well with a baren/back of a spoon for sure and as long as one doesn't use too much pressure it'll be fine through a press.It's not as thick or soft as the pink stuff: at 4mm it is a little harder to lift and place and one needs to exert just a little more pressure but at the price I can work with this, especially when doing workshops or exploratory work to save the expensive of the speedy-carve.As a carving medium it seems to hold fine lines relatively well but as above: it's a firmer cut. I have read some reviews of this product which say it can be crumbly but I have not, thus far, found it so and it cuts cleanly with a scalpel. I shall have to see how it holds up over time but so far so good and I would recommend this product for sure.

This is fine if you are doing solid shapes and not a lot of fine detail. Although easy to carve, I found that it is crumbly when wanting to do finer details.I have used all sorts of carving blocks and I would use this again as long as my designs are simple and not too detailed.

I was able to successfully carve a few designs that I needed. I am well satisfied with the end product. If I need to do anything else like it, I will buy this material again.

Brought these for my 10 year old who can carves stamps without assistance. Good quality and easy to carve. Thin enough to cut using scissors.

Crumbly, very poor clarity. Not my Lino cutters as they work smoothly with other blocks. Only positive thing I can say is that it is fairly easy to cut, although not small details due to the crumb lines. Not good and would not buy again.

Easy to do lino cutting on this product

Like this product

Just what was wanted