Don Stephenson is a very good friend who is an artist with a pen, wood burner and a knife. Recently he gave me the original drawings that will be used for inspiration on the cherry presentation box for the HELVIE Fund Raiser. Rich Smithson will use these drawings in an appropriate manner to decorate the box that will contain twenty one WOOD BEE CARVER Signature Knives made by HELVIE KNIVES and an original WHITTLE DOODLE carving by Don Mertz. Childhood Diabetes Research will receive the proceeds from the fund raising raffle as has been described in the two previous postings in this blog. Thanks to Don Stephenson for his creative genius and generous gifts to the arts.  Below are his drawings.

The HELVIE Whittle Doodle was carved to be part of the Helvie Fund Raising for Childhood Diabetes Research as described in the previous posting on March 16.  The first series of photographs are a panoramic view of the entire carving with its finished stain of artist oil paint Raw Sienna thinned with boiled linseed oil followed with a brushed on application of Deft, a brushing lacquer.

The next series of photographs depict the various sections of the Whittle Doodle along with the WOOD BEE CARVER Signature Knives used to carve each segment. Read the rest of this entry »

HELVIE WHITTLE-DOODLE composite photograph that shows a panoramic view of the Whittle Doodle carved for the Helvie Fund Raiser.  The Whittle Doodle is two inches square and eight inches tall carved using all of the Wood Bee Carver Signature Series knives designed by Don Mertz and made by Helvie Knives with Rich Smithson doing the wood burning art on cherry wood handles.

Myron Compton has been gracious enough to share photographs and written description of his journey to carve another of his wonderful cowboys. Ole Flint is a good “visual study” of an interpretation of a cowboy carving that any carver may want to try on their own. A “visual study” allows for one to exercise and encourage the inner eye of creativity to “see” this cowboy subject with an imagination of how to carve a similar cowboy. Read the rest of this entry »

A Whittle Doodle is doodling with a knife to decorate a block of wood with free hand Whittle Carvings. Since it is doodling there is no preset plan or overall design for the random carvings done to fill in the spaces in a block of wood. There is a combination of a variety of carved faces and free hand chip carving all done in the Whittle-Carving style. The Whittle Doodle was carved into a two inch cube of basswood and finished with Raw Sienna artist oil paint color thinned with boiled linseed oil followed by an application of Deft, a brushing lacquer and then Howard Feed N Wax. Read the rest of this entry »

Bud Murray  ~ budmurray9@gmail.com ~ is well known for his quality carving knives and tools that he has been making for many years. It has been my pleasure to recommend his knives that he has made according to my design because each knife is a great carving tool. Each knife is made one at a time by the hand and creative eye of Bud who puts pride in each tool he makes as if he was making it for himself. If fact that is how it all began with making tools for his own use and after others tried his own personal knife, the orders for custom made knives grew into a custom knife making business one knife at a time.

Recently Bud has been experimenting with new tool steel that will hold a sharp cutting edge for a long, long time. He made a knife for me out of the new steel to field test for him which was used in carving the hillbilly figure in the photos. From start to finish the new steel preformed with extreme sharpness and remained so throughout the entire carving project. This new Premium Knife is the real deal. Even though his original knives and gouges remain super carving tools, yet the new Premium Knife is well worth the extra cost for any carver who would like a knife to retains its sharpness over a long period of use before requiring the use of a strop.

The new Premium Knife as well as other Bud Murray tools can be ordered through his catalog printed below with information on how to contact him. NOTE: Email has changed to: budmurray9@gmail.com  Read the rest of this entry »

A Whittle Doodle is doodling with a knife to decorate a block of wood with free hand Whittle Carvings. Since it is doodling there is no preset plan or overall design for the random carvings done to fill in the spaces in a block of wood. Read the rest of this entry »