“Woodcarving is the journey more than the destination,” which means it is the process of doing the carving project that gives the greatest enjoyment rather than the finished carving as the destination. During this journey there are tried and true signposts that give direction to the process of the journey. The two carving projects that are the backdrop focus of this discussion are two Indians, “Whittle-Carved” using knives to shape and detail Butternut wood blocks eight inches tall, two and three quarter inch thick and three and half inch wide.

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Miniature Shelf Squatters are carved out of an inch and half by inch square block of basswood in the Whittle-Carving style of carving only with a knife. The first Shelf Squatters were carved twenty five years ago and for several years were one of the carving projects used in woodcarving seminars and part of carving shows display table.  As a novelty carving project, it served as a simple carving project for the practice of a variety of faces beginning with a square cornered block.

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The Wood Bee Carver has always been fascinated with whittling and knives since childhood and has blended these interests into a lifelong enjoyment of shaping a piece of wood using a sharp knife as well as making knives for the Whittle-Carving process. A part of this enjoyment has been searching at flea markets, yard sales and antique stores for old pocket knives, junk knives  and antique knives that could be salvaged to be transformed into carving knives. The key was to find knife blades that had the functional purpose of being salvaged, reshaped and sharpened into a blade suitable for carving purposes and not for collectible value.

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Troy Bordeaux is a carving friend who has been carving for many years with a personal passion to grow his creative skills through the hobby of woodcarving.

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Every carving project is always an interpretation of the subject being carved in partnership with the imagination and skill of carver working together in the carving process to create a carving that speaks for itself. Carving an Old Salt figure in multiple poses is to amplify the similar with the variations of posture poses so that each one is unique on their own and together in four interpretations there is a comparative variety of characteristics. The two variations are subtle facial features and the communication of the hands that individualizes each Old Salt.

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The carving subject called an Old Geezer has been carved several times and in this instant is serving as a “Creative Guide” in the carving journey.

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The Wood Bee Carver has always been “tinkering” since childhood play activity explored the activity of discovering to make things to fulfill curiosity of making things for play.  Pocket knives were the tools of play through whittling and creative making whatever imagination guided to make into existence.  Once in an old cross road’s country store the observation was made behind the counter of a wooden handled knife hanging on a nail that had been cobbled together using a pocket knife blade inserted into a wooden stick for a make shift knife of necessity.  That idea made a home in the mind of this tinkering youth to use that idea someday. So, it was from childhood play came the tinkering with making “Other Knives” for carving purposes by salvaging usable blade material to be inserted into a wooden handle.  Blades rescued from old broken or worn out pocket knives have found a new home in the “Other Knives” as well as other suitable metal material that could be utilized for a knife blade.

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