“Whittle Folk Spuds” –  an article written by Don Mertz,  is  in  the  current Sring 2011 issue of Carving Magazine  http://www.carvingmagazine.com/issues/current.shtml  This “how-to” instructional article offers a step by step verbal description accompanied by appropriate photographs.   The article  in Carving Magazine is  in  more detail that a previous posting entitled “SPUDS ” https://woodbeecarver.com/?p=4554   Also in the same issue, my good woodcarving friend Mark Akers has a tutorial on carving a Civil War Soldier as in the photograph below.

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A FACE-EYE STUDY has been put in a pdf format and can be viewed and printed by going to “BEE HIVE” under the left hand column and click on “FACE-EYE STUDY”.

This is one of the  educational projects used in the classes I teach about Whittle-Carving or carving only with a knife.   Read the rest of this entry »

Braided hair adds a lot of interest to any carving where braids seem appropriate.  The three photographs above show examples of the use of carved braids.  While braids looks nice on a carving they also need to be carved as accurately as possible.  Braids are thicker and wider where the braid begins with three bunches of hair braided together.  The braids narrow as they come to the end of hair and the twist of hair needs to be tight. Read the rest of this entry »

Whittling is the art of shaping a hand held piece of wood with a knife using various cutting strokes. The most efficient cut is a slicing cut since the cutting edge of the knife blade is made up of very small teeth very similar to saw teeth. Think of trying to cut a slice of bread. If the knife is laid across the loaf and pressure forces the blade straight down with a wedge cut, the bread will be cut eventually but will be squashed before the blade is forced through the bread. If, however, the knife is used in a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to separate the fibers of the baked bread then a slice is possible with a smooth cut with little squashing of the bread. The same happens when whittling by using a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to do what it is intended to do without forcing the blade into the wood. The key is to learn to develop a slicing action as often as possible to create clean and crisp cuts. Read the rest of this entry »

Whittling is the art of shaping a hand held piece of wood with a knife using various cutting strokes. The most efficient cut is a slicing cut since the cutting edge of the knife blade is made up of very small teeth very similar to saw teeth. Think of trying to cut a slice of bread. If the knife is laid across the loaf and pressure forces the blade straight down with a wedge cut, the bread will be cut eventually but will be squashed before the blade is forced through the bread. If, however, the knife is used in a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to separate the fibers of the baked bread then a slice is possible with a smooth cut with little squashing of the bread. The same happens when whittling by using a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to do what it is intended to do without forcing the blade into the wood. The key is to learn to develop a slicing action as often as possible to create clean and crisp cuts. Read the rest of this entry »

Every carver wants to jump right in carving without the benefit of the time invested in practicing and doing exercises. That is normal and natural until each carver learns that every carving one does is a practice piece, and the steps to complete the carving project are exercises in learning by doing. The WOOD BEE CARVER’S philosophy is: “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood,” meaning that we only learn by doing (practicing and exercising) the carving process. Read the rest of this entry »

The WOOD BEE CARVER  begins with a block of wood carving the subject to its basic form without any detail.  His rule is: “Form Follows Function – Detail Follows Form,” meaning that before any details can be carved the proper form or foundation must be established in order for the details to fit.

All his human figures begin by carving the rough form of the head covering of the subject being carved, the reason being is that the head fits into the head covering rather than the head covering sitting on top of the head.  The head covering could be a hat, a head dress or simply hair.  If there is no head covering then the head is the first thing carved to the basic form of a head. Read the rest of this entry »