On Saturday, November 22, 2014, eleven students gathered at the Woodcraft Store in Centerville, OH for a one day carving class on the subject of carving a Santa Ornament. Students who survived the Whittle-Carving class were: Aaron Davies, Lane Andrianoff, James Canfield, Richard Achor, Joshua Grimes, Doug Schneider, Jason Gordon, Michael Sheils, Karen Terry, Max Litke and Teresa Balsbaugh. The two photos above are of teachable moments as the students were intent in learning from the various exercises leading up to carving a Santa ornament from instructor Don Mertz, the WOOD BEE CARVER.

The beginning exercises included learning the basic slicing cuts of a knife to make notch cuts and three cut triangular chip cuts to open up areas of the block of wood in order to continue shaping the major landmarks of the face of Santa. The step-by-steps cuts in the exercise of carving a flower were used and applied in the actual carving of a Santa face. Students learned that “one cut is not a cut to end all cuts” in that it takes many slicing cuts to carve the basic form before any of the detail cuts can put the finishing touches to a carving.

The photos depict many of the progressive step-by-step examples of shaping the block of wood towards the final depiction of a Santa ornament. Since much of the learning process of carving is to learn by doing, each student learned while carving their own Santa ornament while also observing the demonstrations of the instructor.

A one day class is over way too soon but each student gained enough experience to continue to put into practice what they learned as well as having a study packet to supplement their learning at home on their own. Each student survived to carve again and again in order to continue the journey of leaning by doing. Survivor Students always remember, “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood.”