The Old Carver’s Law says, “Leave no wood uncarved,” so it became a challenge to carve faces out of a hard maple bottle topper on English Leather bottles.  Using the knife  in front of the bottles  in the photograph which was made by Charles Simpson out of Personna floor scraper blades, a slicing cut was required with every cut in this very hard wood.  Besides the hardness of the wood, the challenge is also to carve a different looking face with each carving.  Such a challenge is a way to learn to carve faces as every face carved becomes another learning experience that fulfills the saying: “The more one carves the better one carves.”

The rogues galley of faces that follows gives a close up view of faces carved using only a knife in very hard wood.  It is something that can be done but basswood is a more enjoyable wood to carve.  Carving bottle toppers is done for the novelity and fun of carving while learning with every new carving.