Carving an ear in the Whittle-Carving style of carving only with a knife is presented here using notch cuts and a three cut triangular cut procedure.  Such cuts are ways to open up an area of wood for additional shaping and refining with detail carving. Read the rest of this entry »

Cowboys have always been heroes in the romantic nostalgia of Western lore. In the classic ballad, “The Streets of Laredo,” is the line that says, “I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.”   It is the outfit that a cowboy wore that made him a “dude” or a “gun fighter” or a “saddle tramp” or a “buckaroo” or a “cowpoke” or quite simply a “cowboy. Read the rest of this entry »

The Farmer was carved using a six inch tall by an inch and half square block of basswood in the Whittle-Carving Style of carving only with a knife.  Carving from a block of wood is much different than carving from a rough out or a sawed out blank.  The biggest difference is that it sets free the creative spirit to develop the overall design while shaping the block of wood into the basic form of the subject being carved. Read the rest of this entry »

HELVIE KNIVES  announces the introduction of the latest edition of the WOOD BEE CARVER Signature Series Knives.  Signature Series # 6 ~ the MINI MERTZ is a true detail knife with a thin handle. The cherry wood handle is wood burned with the art work of Rich Smithson who makes the Helvie Knives along with his wife Holli and daughter Skylar. Read the rest of this entry »

HELVIE KNIVES  announces the introduction of the latest edition of the WOOD BEE CARVER Signature Series Knives.  The STINGER BEE Knife is a marriage or combination of the Series # 1 and Series # 2 in its design as a slicing carving knife.  While the # 1 and # 2 have a thicker bevel, the new # 5, STINGER BEE has a thinner bevel that lends itself to a flat plane slicing cut. Read the rest of this entry »