The fine art of “tinkering” is one of those activities that travels down another path of creativity often trying to make something with a hands-on trial and error experimentation of making something useful. Some may consider “tinkering” as a waste of time for old geezers “to putter” at their work bench. But for the honest to goodness “tinkerer” there is nothing that is ever a waste of time as there is also the slim chance of making something better even if it is in the “mind of one who tinkers.” Every “tinkerer” is a genius incognito waiting for the acceptance of normal people and a little appreciation for being more than eccentric. Read the rest of this entry »

The WOOD BEE CARVER begin whittling as a farm boy in the late nineteen forties and early nineteen fifties.  Every farm boy had a pocket knife and if one had a pocket knife one tried to whittle.  So when wood carving became a passion in the early nineteen seventies it was natural to use pocket knives as the main carving tool.

So much of wood carving and its related activity is to learn by doing along with reading books on wood carving and talking with other woodcarvers.  It was at this growing interest in wood carving that I read over and over again Andy Anderson’s book “How to Carve Characters In Wood.” In that book Andy described how he made his own carving knives out of old straight razors by mortising in a piece a wood an area to receive the tang part of the razor and glue a matching piece of wood to complete the handle. Read the rest of this entry »

The WOOD BEE CARVER has always preferred pocket knives that have been refurbished into carving knives as his primary carving tool.  Perhaps it is the nostalgia from boyhood days of whittling with an old pocket knife that adds a little romance to carving with a knife.  Read the rest of this entry »

When the WOOD BEE CARVER started carving seriously around 1975 his tools of choice  were carving knives, primarily pocket knives reshaped and sharpened into carving knives.  He accumulated a few carving gouges and chisels at flea markets and junk stores with the only other known tool source at the time were catalogs from Woodcraft when it was still in Woodburn, MA and Constantines in NYC.  Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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 »

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 »