“Scrapper”  is a nick name given to a carving project that is carved into a “scrap” piece of wood.  Scrapper is a way to fulfill the Old Carver’s Law: “Leave no wood un-carved.”   This four faced Scrapper was carved out of a one inch tall, two inch wide and one inch deep scrap of basswood.  Often a Scrapper will begin as an intended practice carving and in this case the face with bushy hair was carved on one end.  On the other end a cigar chomping dude was carved.  With plenty of space remaining between the two faces on each end, an Indian was carved on one side and a pirate was carved on the other side.  (click on photo to enlarge)

The knife used for this carving is a homemade knife made out of blue blade spring steel with a handle made out of leopard wood.

Otis and Sloppy Joe are not only carving studies but also studies in character as they represent the contrast of personalities.  Much like the “Odd Couple” characters of movie and television fame, Otis is the neat one while Sloppy Joe is the less refined. Joe chomps down on the stub of his cigar, has no sense of color coordination nor of bothering to button all the way up.  Otis gives the polished appearance of a well-dressed man who is prepared for rain or whatever else may come up as his pipe dreams encircle his head much like the smoke from his pipe. Read the rest of this entry »

The WOOD BEE CARVER  carves continuously in the journey of woodcarving to continue to learn and sharpen the craft of carving various subjects.  Each carving project is in essence a “Study Carving” whereby lessons are learned through the innovations of designs and the stretching of ability through challenging innovations.  Such carving projects become the subject for an instructional posting on this blog as well as a Go-By for a carving class.  Even though the subjects may have been carved previously, yet each time a similar subject is carved it becomes a new carving with slight tweaking of design, pose or feature.  Thus no two carvings are exactly alike as each takes on its own personality and characteristic. Read the rest of this entry »

Charles and Doris Leverett  hosted a fourth – three day carving seminar on June 8, 9 and 10, 2012 in their Northeast Alabama carving studio.  Eight Students survived the rigors of Whittle-Carving using only a knife to make the necessary slicing cuts to shape a block of wood.  Pictured is the photo are Bob and Lynn Zenoble, Hugh O’Neal, Ann Armstrong, David Wilson, Cherie Cornelius, Charles Leverett, Greg Douglas,  and Joe Cernut.   Read the rest of this entry »

Buzz Buzzard  is a character study of a caricature of an old man standing at the twilight of days with a gaze back in time to a younger time when spring was in his step and winter was a cold breeze far away.  Now the days have accelerated towards the winter of his days with only summer memories to warm his soul. At least that is one story this carving may be telling since the purpose of a carving is to tell a story to the imagination of the observer. Read the rest of this entry »

The photograph shows a Clown writing pen and a Hobbit carved recently for  Helvie Knives  for their private collection.  The writing pen began as a ball point pen cartridge inserted into a short and a longer block of basswood to see an example of what could be carved as a carved writing pen.  The Hobbit was carved out of a five inch tall by two and three quarters inch square block.

A picture is worth a thousand words suggests what can be learned from studying pictures in this photographic journey.

The first photographic journey is of the Clown writing pen showing the front and back view followed by a picture of the Helvie Signature Series # 3 knife used to carve the Clown.

The Hobbit was carved to form using a Helvie Limited Special Edition  larger two and a half inch scimitar blade in a Pakkawood handle. A smaller two inch scimitar bladed knife, the Signature Series # 2 and a Collector’s Series knife were used for refining the form into detail carving of the overall figure Read the rest of this entry »

Helvie Knives  offers for sale a basswood blank handled knife that can be carved into whatever design the carver chooses.  Below are photographs of examples of knife handles that have been carved. Creative imagination results in very unique, one of a kind carved knife handle.  For more information go to “Cool Links”  and click on “Helvie Knives.”   Additional examples of  carved knife handles may be viewed by clicking on this hot link: ” Helvie Knives Collection”  and this hot link for Caricature Carvers of America or CCA’s    “Helvie Knife Handle Project”

As can be seen each carved handle is unique and one of a kind  heirloom creation. Read the rest of this entry »