Whittling
 

I like to whittle.

A couple more. Sometimes I paint them too.

Cool, V! How big are they?

What's your wittlin' tool?

Can you whittle?


Ture, itt eaty. Jutt put your lipt together and blow.

very nice!

A few weeks ago, I had trimmed a few small branches off our maple tree. The kids love running around with sticks, and were breaking off the smaller twigs to make good sticks they could play with. So went went inside and got a couple of pocket knives and taught them about cutting the bark off, and cutting off all the little sharp twigs poking out the sides. Making the sticks nice and smooth. Both were instantly hooked. We spent a couple hours, just sitting on the bench of the picnic table, making piles of shavings in the grass by our feet.

Absolutely nothing like this though.

Wow- very cool! I LOVE the knife! Very awesome stuff, V.

Here's the only popular culture whittling reference I know. Enjoy:


Cletus/"I don't know my memory ain't been so good ever since I drank my thermometer, but I whittles every thing I see.Sometimes I even whittles the future"-/Cletus.

Tthanks guys!

I really do love to whittle. These are all neckerchief slides to be worn with our scout uniforms. They're a couple of inches across at most. The first three, the fleur-de-lis, the knife and the boot are all free form carvings from a small piece of wood. The crocodile at the bottom was from a kit. The first ones are carved from brazillian rosewood, which I had left over from the kayak project. It is *amazing* wood, gorgeous grain and color. It takes a knife well, provided the knife is very sharp. The wood is very hard. It is commonly used to make marimbas. It will make a musical ring when struck. Not pieces this small of course.

The little croc at the bottom is a lot easier to carve being basswood. But the flip side is that is also tears more easily and requires much more sanding. Also, the grain is practically invisible--uninteresting, so it begs to be painted. That's ok, the painting's fun too.

This particular one belongs to SonofV, to whom it was awarded last summer for having the biggest smile at summer camp. Appropos.

I have several more, and I will post them soon.

As to my whittling tools, my principal knife is a Winchester Stockman. Here's a picture.

I keep it very sharp and I make very small cuts. I have a set of carving chisels, but for this kind of work, they are unsuitable. If I was able to dog them down onto the bench and work the chisel with two hands, perhaps. I can do practically everything I want to do using a lever cut with the spey blade. Word to the wise: keep it sharp.

your linky wasn't workin - here ya go
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg

yes. damn my self confidence. pressing post before proofing my work. what in the world was I thinking.

i hate the img tag.

oh, and very nice whittlings .... is that a word?

:rolleyes:

I remember how my great-uncle Jerry would sit on the porch and whittle all day long. Once he whittled me a toy boat out of a larger toy boat I had. It was almost as good as the first one, except now it had bumpy whittle marks all over it. And no paint, because he had whittled off the paint.

--Jack Handey

Thanks! Sure. Carvings is a word, I accept your word.

The wooden knife pic looks like Mahogany.

I like ta whittle, too. It a lil tough wid tha gaps in ma teff.

those are beautiful

if I may some day want to convince you to whittle some teeny tiny cameras for me would you be amenable?

an exchange ofcourse, no freerides, I understand.

daff0dil:

Thanks!

I am nothing if not amenable. What did you have in mind? How detailed? How big? Painted or natural? How many? When? What kind of wood? Would you want them as neckerchief slides or just trinkets?

well, basically, jason was an eagle scout and would appreciate something...reminding him of his scout days. so I was thinking something photo related. small. neckerchief slide? is that what that is called?

Consider it done.

How detailed? Natural or painted? Use my judgement? When do you want it?

Totally cool, BigV! I love the letter-opener one especially.

Daff, that's an awesome idea, I bet he'll love it.

Thank you!

Here's another one I like. It's a sea monster. But, in the second picture, you can see the original intended orientation "beaver on a log". This is definitely *not* the thread for that pic.

Animals are common subjects for these kinds of projects. Here we have a chameleon and a turtle, both from kits. The chameleon is a work in progress, obviously. SonofV has asked if he may paint it when I'm done whittling. Of course!

Edged weapons are also popular! Stone axe and hatchet.

One more, another freehand. I must confess, this one is my favorite.

Fire.

Very nice V - you are a multi-talented guy

Those are all cool... I like the sea monster and the fire best!

You just take a piece of wood and cut away everything that doesn't look like what you want... and not your fingers. :haha:

I've only just checked in on this thread. Wow V. They are stunning, simply stunning. They remind me an awful lot of medieval Japanese carved netsukes; especially the animal ones.

Over here, I believe the neckerchief slides that Scouts wear are called 'woggles'.

Y'know...they'd make excellent stoppers to hang from the ends of the cords on window blinds too. Or dangly light cords. (sorry to blind you with tech talk there).

or you could whittle a few wine bottle toppers with a nice cork screwed/glued into the bottom for all your internet friends - is it too early to hint for xmas presents?

That's an awesome idea! I'd trade you a glass one for a wood one.

I've gotten stoppers here:
http://www.woodcraft.com/product.asp...FamilyID=21118
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/BS1.html