Rich, Holli and Skylar Smithson, owners and manufacturers of Helvie Knives  are passionate about the Kokomo Humane Society and have created a “One of a Kind” knife collection as a prize for a raffle fund raiser. The photographs and written description invites all who would like to participate in this fund raiser by purchasing a raffle ticket. Read the rest of this entry »

A friend had an antique folk art Fraternal Order of Eagles wall plaque that was missing an eagle that had broken off.  The friend wanted an eagle carved to replace the broken one so this became a project of carving a “folk eagle” using traditional carving tools.  The WOOD BEE CARVER is primarily a knife carver but will on occasion use the “real” carving tools in addition with a knife. Read the rest of this entry »

Jim Hecker recently carved an accordion player and has documented the carving process and progress with photographs and a brief written description. Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking the tip on a carving knife is inevitable.  It happens because the tip is the thinnest and narrowest part of the blade and takes the most stress and pressure when it is used for making entry stop cuts and for carving in a circular motion.  It can be slowed down by always remembering to begin the slicing action before twisting the point of the blade to make a circular cut. If the tip bends over or breaks do not panic or blame the knife maker.  Simply follow the tip to reshaping the tip of a carving knife described below with a photo tutorial for a cutting edge that curves up at tip. Read the rest of this entry »

A Go By Study of faces can help any carver to “see” and imagine what is in a face in order to carve faces in wood.  The first photograph above shows a head carved to basic form.  The middle photograph shows descriptions of the major cuts at the landmarks of the face at the eye, the juncture of the nostril, smile line and upper dental curve and the mouth mound.  These cuts make good foundations for carving in the details of the eyes, mouth, teeth, nose and ears as seen in the finished carved head and face in the third photograph.  The Second row of photographs are of three views comparing the two head. Read the rest of this entry »

In the previous posting on Go By Study the emphasis was placed upon being able to “see” a carving project in one’s imagination, in a block of wood and while carving the project to its basic form. The series of four photographs above shows examples of the progressive stages in carving a hillbilly carrying a jug of corn squeezings.  The figure on the left shows the hat, head and chest carved to basic form with the remaining portion of the block marked with guidelines.  The center figure is carved to basic form while the figure on the right is a finished figure.  The four views provide a visual tutorial of the observation of comparison for a Go By lesson. Read the rest of this entry »

A “Go By” is a term applied to the use of a carved object, partially carved object, a photograph or a drawing that is studied and looked at during the carving process to guide the carver.  It is an instructional aid and a visual guide to help see what is being carved.  The key word is “see” with the mental eye to get a fix on how a carving that is being carved will begin to look as the wood is being shaped.  Yoga Berra in noted for his Yoga-isms like “you can observe a lot by watching.” A Go By helps the carver to see if the carver will observe and imagine what cuts were used to carve the Go By to its present form.  This “observation to see” is not a quick process but does require a thoughtful and methodical visual analyzing of the parts and sum total of a Go By. Read the rest of this entry »