Carving Projects

My Carving Evolution:

I was intrigued with using a sharp object to reshape another object from a very young age. Unfortunately at times, the object I reshaped was not the piece of wood that I intended to reshape but more than once I reshaped my finger with a sharp knife instead. My first major achievement was shaping a common every-day stick into a masterpiece, or otherwise known as: “a stick with a pointy end”. I used this pattern almost to extreme and finally got tired of this very easy but useful carving. I wanted something more. That is when I upgraded my design to include another feature that I’m sure no one else ever thought of. I called it “a stick with two pointy ends”. Having only taken several years of dedicated carving to reach this point, I knew I would soon be a master at my craft. Alas, I was destined to continue my slow progression through the ranks of carving and I am still plodding along at it today. Somewhere in my teen years on a family fishing trip to the wild wilderness of Northern Ontario, I was concentrating on my normal “pointy stick” style of carving while sitting next to a campfire when a wonderful accident happened. I noticed that the stick I was sharpening into a point had a very slight, (and I do mean slight) resemblance to a deep diving fishing lure we were using on that trip. Taking advantage of this accident, I started trying to shape it in the manner and likeness of a lure. It ended up looking somewhat like a lure although my encouraging family still referred to it as a “weirdly, bent, pointy stick”. Unhindered by such encouragement I would try to carve a lure every subsequent summer fishing trip and I actually succeeded several years. Fast forward to the early spring of 2018 I bought my first real carving knife (Flexcut) and some basswood blanks off of Amazon, and I was hooked. I couldn’t get enough of it, I started searching for information online and came across a very accomplished carver and started watching his YouTube videos. His name is Gene Messer and I still enjoy watching his videos, he is a wonderful resource of carving information and also some free life lessons sprinkled in along the way. It wasn’t long after that, I discovered another great source of carving and crafting information: Doug Linker. I love his humble, easy-going, try-it-yourself approach to life. There have been many other influences for me though the years but I have discovered that the best way for me to improve is pick up a knife and a stick and practice…