ScoutmasterCG

Early June 2011

Time to carve: 3 hours
Finishing: 3.5 hour

Ssshhhhhh....If you know or correspond with Clarke Green don't let him know this is on the way to him...I want it to be a surprise. For those of you who have never heard of Clarke Green, his Scoutmaster blog, or the Scoutmaster podcast you really need to find him on the net! The Scoutmaster's Oracle, the podcast Commissioner and really nice guy, Clarke shares his thoughts, wit, and wisdom weekly to the folks that follow him world-wide. Always happy to answer a question for Scouter, his answers are spot-on relying on his many years of Scouting experience. On his site he shares his wisdom and thoughts on Scoutmastership, gear reviews, highlights some of the best books on Scouting, program ideas, and information on high adventure areas. I never miss the weekly podcasts and tend to listen to them within hours (sometimes minutes) of them being released.(Although I never understood the penguin joke.) So for all he does for the Scouting community, I created this slide based on the icon (see the picture above) he has used for years on his website. Thanks again Clarke...

Carved from maple, this is one of the most challenging slides I have ever made since the only thing I have had to work from was a picture off the internet. When working the Whittlin' Jim patterns, there has always been front and side views along with some directions on how to make the slide but in this case had neither. I first glued a copy of the figure to the wood and headed to the band saw to rough it out. When I cut out the middle section, between the head and and hand, with the jig-saw I really put the saw to the test since I had never cut so thick a piece of wood before with this saw. Setting knife to wood, I removed lots of layers to the base level of the body while leaving the hat intact. Lots of carving with this to make it look right. Painting was another challenge since I wasn't exactly sure of the color of the neckerchief and the color of the epaulet.Lots of mixing of colors till I the right match to the picture (hope it is the same colors in real life). The hardest part of the slide was the plaid (I hope it was plaid) of the neckerchief which entailed painting the plaid, smudging the area, and using a paint wash over the neckerchief. A couple of coats of poly finish it off.