Posted by: woodbeecarver in Knives
They say that the best form of advertising is “word of mouth” of “one beggar telling another where to find a slice of bread.” The same is true for wood carvers who discover unique wood carving tools that are often custom made by carvers who wanted a special tool, couldn’t find it, so they made it themselves. Others saw their “one of a kind” carving tool and wanted one just like it and thus was born another custom knife and carving tool enterprise.
One such craftsman with tool steel and an artist in design is Bud Murray who has been custom making very unique carving tools and knives for several years. The reputation of a Murray Knife has been spread “word of mouth” from notable carving teachers like Harold Enlow, Stu Martin, Debbie Edwards, Vic Hood, Gary Falin and Wayne Shinlever (to name only a few).
A catalog can be requested using the following information: Bud Murray’s Custom Carving Knives, 1490 Thunder Mountain Road, CAMDENTON, MO 65020 or by phone: 573-346-7321.
The unique thing about custom knife makers is because they do it for the “love of craftsmanship” and their reputation stands upon the quality of their tools. Bud Murray’s tools speak for themselves in quality, beauty and uniqueness of design. The tool part of a gouge, skew or knife blade cuts like a dream while holding the “proverbial” edge. The handles, also custom made, are both comfortable to the eye and the hand and are made of either chinaberry or walnut finished with a tung oil finish.
The WOOD BEE CARVER has a vast accumulation of knives and carving tools brought on by the affliction of “tool-i-tis” that says, “One is enough, two is too many and three is never enough.” The few Murray tools I have are “tried and true” being some of my favorites among favorites.
The photo above shows only a sampling of his vast array of sizes and shapes that are well worth an inquiry to Bud Murray. I highly recommend his carving tools.
Posted by: woodbeecarver in General
Posted by: woodbeecarver in General
These three photos show carvings displayed in the carving room. Carvings are hanging on the wall behind a former library card catalog cabinet which have many Santa carvings on display on its top.
The two other photos show carvings on display in two sections of a cabinet with shelves. The bottom of the cabinet contain wood carving books and magazines.
Most of the carvings on display were carved by the WOOD BEE CARVER along with several others carved by other carvers that have been collected over the years of friendship within the carving family.
The WOOD BEE CARVER has been carving seriously since 1975 as a hobby carver who has dedicated himself to always be an amateur carver. “Amateur” means one who does what one does for the love of doing it while also learning by doing and improving one’s skills, abilities and interests while doing what one loves to do.
In the same frame of understanding, my philosophy developed to say, “Would be carvers would be carver if they would carve wood,” which implies the “amateur” ever learning and ever growing aspect of the carving experience. Wood carving is using the trial and error method of learning while doing with the assumption being that the more one carves, the better one becomes since so much of the carving experience is “practice, practice, practice.” Read the rest of this entry »
One of the side effects of wood carving is to be afflicted with an ailment of accumulating carving tools. With that ailment comes the need for a place for tool storage and a way to carry carving tools to club meetings, carving shows or to another location other than the home base used for carving. Every carver has their own system and is always on the look out for another idea. One advantage of taking carving classes is to see what tools other carvers are using and what kind of box, bag or storage unit they have. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: woodbeecarver in Knives
The WOOD BEE CARVER grew up with the pocket knife being used for whittling and when it comes to carving, refurbished, reshaped and sharpened pocket knives are still the first choice. The pocket knives depicted in the photo show the shape of blade preferred for its slicing action ability and getting into tight spots. Of course it all boils down to what one gets used to using and personal preference.
The small bladed knives in the photo above were made from broken blades reshaped and sharpened. The larger bladed knives in the photo began life as a pruning knife with a hawk bill or hooked blade. To get the shape as they now appear, the blade was cut to shape using a cut off disc on a Dremel Tool on what is now the back edge of the blade. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by: woodbeecarver in Knives
The WOOD BEE CARVER is primarily a whittler who carves with knives in a style he calls WHITTLE FOLK ART. Often I am asked what is my favorite carving knife and my response is always, “The knife I am using at the time.”
The reason being that I have always loved pocket knives and whittling on a piece of wood ever since I was a boy growing up on a small farm three miles south of Poneto, Indiana (which is south of Bluffton and further south of Ft. Wayne and west of Berne.) During those formative years every boy carried a pocket knife, even to school, and if a boy has a pocket knife he is prone to whittle on something. In my case, even though I whittled often to make toys and “boy stuff” I did not really know what I was doing, did not know how to sharpen a knife nor what was good carving wood nor have anyone show me how to carve. Still the carving urge persisted as I grew older occasionally whittling on something and drawn to wood carvings that would be on display in stores or magazines. Read the rest of this entry »
Every carver has an inner anxiousness about making a mistake while carving but when you boil it down there really are no mistakes in carving, only learning experiences. A wit once said “Nothing in life is ever a complete failure because it can always serve as a negative example,” which is a lot more truth than humor. David Sabol of the Caricature Carvers of America often says in his carving instructions that carvers should treat each carving project as a “practice” piece by which he implies that each carving project is a learning experience, so relax and have fun and if you mess up the carving, you can learn how to make adjustments. Read the rest of this entry »
The WOOD BEE CARVER calls his carving room “CARVING CENTRAL” since it is the center of carving activity. When my wife and I build our home for retirement in 2006 we designed it as an “old geezer’s” house with a one floor plan with wide open spaces and a carving room inside the house.
