The WOOD BEE CARVER is primarily a knife carver who started as a boy growing up on a farm three miles south of Poneto, Indiana whittling with a pocket knife in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.  In the early 1970’s David Monhollen showed me the fundamentals of carving and ever since I have pursued wood carving as a growing experience of learning by doing.  Even though other carving tools are used in some carving projects, yet my first love is carving only with a knife.  Thus I have developed a style I call “Whittle-Carving” which is simply carving only with a knife. Read the rest of this entry »

Braided hair adds a lot of interest to any carving where braids seem appropriate.  The three photographs above show examples of the use of carved braids.  While braids looks nice on a carving they also need to be carved as accurately as possible.  Braids are thicker and wider where the braid begins with three bunches of hair braided together.  The braids narrow as they come to the end of hair and the twist of hair needs to be tight. Read the rest of this entry »

“SHELF SQUATTERS” is the name of Whittle-Carved character heads that sit on a shelf.  They were first created in 1996 as the WOOD BEE CARVER’S version of what was commonly called “shelf sitters.”

They originated as a way to utilize little end cuttings of  pieces of basswood and later became normalized in size from a one inch square by two inches tall basswood blank.  An angled saw kerf is cut in the back side of the blank about half way between the top and the bottom and cut about two thirds into the blank.  With the saw kerf angling up hill, the waste area (indicated by the X’s in photo) under the saw kerf is squared so that part can be whittled away to allow for the rest of the blank to sit on and over the front of a shelf. Studying the photo at the left will show the saw kerf, the waste area and the way the blank will squat  on and over the shelf edge. Read the rest of this entry »

“Kilroy Was Here” became a cartoon  graffiti figure during World War Two.  Carving an interpretation of this nostalgic bit of humor becomes a fun project.  In this relief carving the caricature appears within a frame.  The background, pupils and fence outline was wood  burned to provide a contrast in this basswood carving. Read the rest of this entry »

A “Tree Noggin” is the name of this style of Whittle-Carving using a basswood tree limb.  Carving through the bark to reveal the inner wood on this particular Tree Noggin revealed two colors of wood.  One half was honey brown and the other half was creamy white.  Basswood can be either color but seldom are the two colors combined in the same limb.  Definitely a “split personality.” Read the rest of this entry »

This little fella, called A Good Man, received his true colors the first week of June.  He had been carved in April using a carving knife made by Allen Goodman.  He stands three inches tall having been carved from a one inch square block by three inches.  He was carved exclusively with the Goodman knife in the “Whittle-Carving” style.

Several poses of A Good Man gives a good, all around view of this Whittle-Carving.  The last photograph shows the Allen Goodman knife used to carve this little fella.  Allen makes a fine carving knife that has a up-sweep cutting edge and the back of the edge has a slight “sway back” curve.  The design of this blade shape along with the springy flexibility of the blade allows for good slicing cuts and coming out of a cut without the back edge slowing down the cut.  A Good Man was carved as a test of the versatility of Allen’s knife and it certainly passed the test.  An Allen Goodman knife is a Good one. Read the rest of this entry »

Three wood carvers who have been my mentors in carving ever since I first heard and read about them, even before I met them, are Ivan Denton, Peter Engler and Harold Enlow.  Combined, these three have perhaps influenced more people to discover the wonderful world of wood carving than any other combination of woodcarvers. Read the rest of this entry »