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.

These three photographs are of three Whittle-Carvings  being carved only with a knife.  Rex, the carving in the left photograph is a combination of a Gnome and an Old Geezer.  He stands three inches tall.  The middle photograph is of Spud Johns who is a caricature with large ears on a large head and is finished with only a stain of artist oil  raw sienna paint diluted with boiled linseed oil.  The miniature Santa stands two inches tall on a  three quarters of an inch square base.

The carving of a Kilroy character climbing over a fence was carved in a basswood spool two inches tall and an inch and a half in diameter.  It was carved using the Ralph E. Long knife in the photograph.  Ralph is an excellent knife maker who makes a great variety of blade  and handle shapes.  Call him at 336-595-4563 to request a catalog flier or email: reldpl@embarqmail.com or go to “Cool Links” and click on REL KNIVES to print off a brochure and order form.

The knife in the photograph has a curved cutting edge with an up-sweep and a very deep “sway back” curve in its back edge.  It is an excellent “slicing” blade with versatile positions of the cuts during the Whittle-Carving process.

As I am prone to say and repeat myself many times, “Woodcarving is more the journey than the destination.” The “Journey” is the fun process while one is carving and the destination is the finished carving.  These projects posted here show part of the “fun Journey” but then this Wood Bee Carver has fun with everything associated with carving.  Join  in the fun by practicing my philosophy, “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood.” Have a “fun Journey.”