Adair Rucker and his wife Patty of Lockhart, Texas teach carving, wood burning, scrimshaw and Sculpey clay modeling of carving subjects.  They taught a class in sculpturing with Sculpey clay at the recent International Woodcarving Congress in Bettendorf, Iowa.

I have known the Ruckers since 1995 when we were together in the War Eagle Seminars.  It was there that I first noticed the practical and unique “Lap Box Apron” being used by several carvers from the Texas and Arkansas area.  Such a neat idea and easy to construct using a shallow wooden box and a shop apron tacked to the inside of the box.  Studying the photograph gives a self explained procedure on how to make one’s own “Lap Box Apron” to take to wood carving meetings, carving classes or doing some relaxed carving under the shade tree.

Visit the Rucker’s website at http://www.christmascarvingsetc.com/ and if you ever have a chance to take one of their classes, it would be well worth the investment.  Adair and Patty are fun people to be around and they are very knowledgeable in what they teach.

Fred Cogelow receives Best of Show honors for his carving of a young lad sitting on a log while reading a book.  Fred was also one of the instructors during Congress week of seminars. Read the rest of this entry »

Bruce Futterer of Russelville, Arkansas is a carver who expands his carving horizon by carving various subjects and themes.  Bruce entered twenty four carvings in competition at the recent International Woodcarvers Congress competition of the Affiliated Wood Carvers in Bettendorf, Iowa.  His carvings have been admired in the various wood carving shows that he is a participant and he is always a ribbon winner.  In the following photo essay some of his entries at Congress may be viewed and appreciated for the uniqueness of ideas, skill in carving execution and the wide variety of subjects. Read the rest of this entry »

Denny Neubauer, the founder and maker of “Denny Knives and Tools” is first and foremost a carver.  He made his now famous and favorite carving tools first for himself and then founded a manufacturing company to serve the carving community with his speciality tools.  In the photograph Denny is teaching at the recent AWC International Woodcarvers Congress a class on carving on Denny Knife handles. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »