The year was 2011 and a patron requested a commission carving of Harriet Tubman.  Such an iconic historical figure whose contribution to freedom and consciousness to the moral character of our nation’s greater good is a humbling charge to memorialize in a wood carving.  To add to the pressure of accomplishing such an endeavor is to understand the love, honor and respect the patron had for Harriet as a hero to her people as well as all she accomplished for her race and for women’s suffrage.  A daunting task that required study and research by the carver to come to know Harriet Tubman as one who lives on through her humanitarian acts of bravery to lead many of her people to freedom from slavery by way of the Underground Railroad and moral leadership as an abolitionist and suffragist. The U.S. Treasury on April 20, 2016 honored her memory with the announcement that Harriet Tubman will be the new face on the twenty dollar bill by 2020. Read the rest of this entry »

The VIPER III is the third and smallest version of the VIPER series of the Wood Bee Carver Signature Series.  The design of the curved cutting edge and the downward angle of the snaking shape of the blade allows it to snake its slicing action into areas difficult to reach. Even though the one inch small blade has all the appearance of a “detail knife” yet it is an “all purpose” carving knife.  The small radius of the curved cutting edge slices smaller chip removal than a larger radius blade while still being capable to removing a lot of wood in the shaping process in a small package. It is very versatile when carving small carving projects as well as being functional for taking small cuts in the shaping of a larger carving project.  Once the carving project is carved to its basic form, the VIPER III continues to carve in the details with precise slicing cuts.  The accompanying photos are examples of VIPER III used to carve each completely using only this one knife. Read the rest of this entry »