The WOOD BEE CARVER has been carving seriously since 1975 as a hobby carver who has dedicated himself to always be an amateur carver. “Amateur” means one who does what one does for the love of doing it while also learning by doing and improving one’s skills, abilities and interests while doing what one loves to do.

In the same frame of understanding, my philosophy developed to say, “Would be carvers would be carver if they would carve wood,” which implies the “amateur” ever learning and ever growing aspect of the carving experience.   Wood carving is using the trial and error method of learning while doing with the assumption being that the more one carves, the better one becomes since so much of the carving experience is “practice, practice, practice.” Read the rest of this entry »

One of the side effects of wood carving is to be afflicted with an ailment of accumulating carving tools.  With that ailment comes the need for a place for tool storage and a way to carry carving tools to club meetings, carving shows or to another location other than the home base used for carving.  Every carver has their own system and is always on the look out for another idea.  One advantage of taking carving classes is to see what tools other carvers are using and what kind of box, bag or storage unit they have.  Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Every carver has an inner anxiousness about making a mistake while carving but when you boil it down there really are no mistakes in carving, only learning experiences.  A wit once said “Nothing in life is ever a complete failure because it can always serve as a negative example,” which is a lot more truth than humor.  David Sabol of the Caricature Carvers of America often says in his carving instructions that carvers should treat each carving project as a “practice” piece by which he implies that each carving project is a learning experience, so relax and have fun and if you mess up the carving, you can learn how  to make adjustments.  Read the rest of this entry »

There is an old wise saying: “Life is full of endings, but it is never The End for with every ending there is always a new beginning.” Such a wise observation fits every experience of life if only we resolve to “begin again.”

The WOOD BEE CARVER has as one of his sayings: “Woodcarving is more the journey than the destination,” which means that satisfaction does not come at the end with the completed carving.  Satisfaction comes while doing the carving project so when the carver comes to the end with a completed carving there is the eager anticipation to “begin again“ with another carving project. Read the rest of this entry »

Christmas is a special time to be reminded again that peace and good will happens every time, no matter what time of year it is, when we give our selves away in love and friendship.  In the wood carving world such a friendhip is experienced over and over again where ever and when ever wood carvers gather together.  There is a spirit of generosity and willingness to help one another and share the experiences of wood carving. Read the rest of this entry »