This is a Small Tool Tote made by Bob Clarke of Fernley, NV.  http://www.woodcarverstooltote.com/ This tool tote is designed with sixteen pre-cut slots for hanging tools on either side of a central box that contains a firm foam block to stick knife points into with open space for carving glove or other necessities.  There is also a handy drawer for pencils, ruler, band-aids and other small tools.

The first two photographs above shows the Clarke Small Tool Tote filled with fifty nine palm carving tools.  The central box area has received a plastic Ice Tube Tray like the one in the third photograph which is holding knives.

The Ice Tube Tray can be purchased at Wal Mart for under four dollars.  It contains twenty seven tubes which will hold palm carving tools and knives with larger handles.  The Ice Tube Tray is the correct size to fit in the center section the the Clarke Small Tool Tote.

For the smaller Stetson designed Clarke Tool Tote, an Ice Tube Tray can be cut to fit the center section to hold eighteen palm carving tools.  Additional sections of the Ice Tube Tray can be cut to hang on either side the the handle support using plastic ties as pictured in the photograph below.

Bob also makes a Large Tool Tote plus paint storage boxes.  In the January 6, 2008 post about Carving Tool Storage I highlighted a tool tote Bob made called the Dave Stetson box.  His tool totes are well made with such a functional design and reasonably priced that I highly recommend them.

HOG HEAVEN PIG SEED was first created as a whittling exercise to see how small  one could carve a pig.  The first miniature pig was carved in 1982 becoming a pig seed by the accident of humor.  The WOOD BEE CARVER was showing and demonstrating his carvings at an outside show at a restored log cabin-ed village called Pioneer Village close to Caesar’s Creek Lake near Harveysburg, Ohio.  School children visited on a field trip and as part of the demonstration for the visitors I would ask the children if they had ever seen a “pig seed” and then showed them the carved wooden pig explaining that this pig would grow into a big hog by using one’s imagination.  Most of the children realized that I was just kidding them but then the fun part of humor is exaggeration. Read the rest of this entry »

The year was 1992 that this carving of a cowboy was carved.  He represents the beginning of a series of carvings named “Whittle Folk ‘Pokes” that began in 1996 and were carved until 2003 and just recently four more ‘Pokes were carved as a commission for an old time carving friend from Texarkana, Arkansas.  “Barrel Johnson,” as he was called because he was so bow legged a barrel could be rolled between his legs, returned home as a Father’s Day gift from my wife.  Read the rest of this entry »

Apple wood is a very beautiful wood that is considered to be a hard wood but it is not as hard as cherry, maple or walnut.   Its rich color without distinct grain pattern makes it suitable to carve jewelry pieces.  Since the grain composition is very tight one can carve intricate details without those details crumbling, splitting or breaking at crucial design junctures.  The carvings depicted in the photo were carved between 1978 and 1981.  Each was carved with a knife while those with textured backgrounds were textured with an awl or ice pick kind of tool. Read the rest of this entry »

The carvings depicted in the photo trail are some of my earliest carvings carved between 1976 and 1979 while I was a member of the Mahoning Valley Wood Carvers of Warren, Ohio.  The club was founded in 1976 by about twenty carvers with the most notable being the late Huber King who had won Best of Show at the International Wood Carvers Congress, Davenport, Iowa several times in the late 70’s.  Read the rest of this entry »

Whittle Folk Gothic were carved around 1990 – 1991 and these five are all that remain from that era.   The inspiriation for these Whittle Folk Gothic came from the famous painting entitled “American Gothic” by Grant Wood.  Each was carved from a three quarter inch by at least three inches tall block of basswood and finished natural using Deft semi gloss clear wood finish (a brushing lacquer).  These “Gothic” figures were an attempt to carve realistic figures in a small scale of the whittle-carving style of carving only with a knife.  Read the rest of this entry »

WHITTLE FOLK ‘POKES are carvings done in a Western theme.  Each one, except for the miniature and the bust, were carved out of a three quarter inch square by four inch tall basswood block using only a knife and in particular just the tip end of the blade using a slicing cut. Read the rest of this entry »