HELVIE KNIVES once upon a time marketed a novelty knife with a basswood nondescript handle shape intended to become a carving project for carving the handle into a subject of the carver’s choosing. A friend commissioned me to carve two such Helvie Knives using the theme of three faces carved in totem fashion.

The first photos in the gallery are of the completed carvings in its various side views. The concluding random photos are the handles in progressive stages of development

[click of each photo to enlarge]

Each knife blade is inserted into a display base made of a basswood block that had receive nature’s spalted blemish with a basswood crossed inlayed into the front side of the base.

The three head/faces on each handle were Whittle-Carved using only knives to shape the carvings.  A stain of artist oil pain Raw Sienna thinned with boiled linseed oil colored the white basswood into a warm honey color.

Each Knife Handle Totem stands tall and proud in the carver’s art.