Whittle Doodles are fun whimsical carvings that are carved with the prompting of imagination in a free hand manner using only a knife to create the various embellishments in a block of wood.  This Whittle Doodle MAX was whittle-carved into a four inch square block of jelutong.  The monochrome finish is artist oil paint Raw Sienna mixed with boiled linseed oil with a protective finish of Deft applied after the oil finish has dried.

Various faces were carved into each side of the block using slicing cuts.  The side corners of the block as well as the top received free hand chip carvings to carry out the “doodling” motif.

The knives used to doodle carve were randomly chosen for one or several of the faces or chip carved embellishments.  The first photo shows Helvie Signature Series knives: left knife is Bumble BEE; top knife is Wasp BEE; right knife is Mini Mertz II; and bottom knife is Hornet BEE.  The middle photo shows two Bud Murray # 559 knives used primarily for the chip carving as well as some of the finer detail carving of the various faces. The third photo shows utility knives with extension handles that have been modified into a carving blade of the Wood Bee Carver style of blade.

Whittle Doodling is a creative way to use one’s imagination while practicing various slicing cuts in the creation of a curiosity carving. Doodling is not a waste of time because creativity has been given its freedom to create making for a certain kind of simple beauty in each doodle.  Carve some doodles and doodle some carvings.