Monday, August 30, 2010

One year later

A year ago...

I was the new scout master of our troop
I had just come back from Outdoor Leader Essentials training
and I had found a passion of carving neckerchief slides

Some reflections as I go forward...

So far, cow horns are more difficult to find than I thought
Butterball does not include neck bones with its frozen turkeys
As much as I tried, finding a armadillo tail in New England still eludes me and I understand they may carry leprosy.
I still trying to learn to bend wood. (But can't wait to try out the new steamer I made.)
I'm always on the lookout for items for the slides.

Going forward...

I going to Wood Badge training (which I wanted to do for years)
I look forward to this year with the troop
and I still carry the passion to carve towards my goal

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Life Preserver

Late August 2010

Time to carve: 0 hours
Finishing: .25 hours

While not an Whittlin Jim pattern, I wanted to make this "Slide of the Month" for a Scout who earned his BSA Life Guard award this summer at camp. The ring is a pre-painted white curtain rod ring I found at Home Depot. The rope is nylon cord and the red is duct tape. This slide takes literately 15 minutes to make and by far is the easiest to date.

EDIT: As it turns out, there was a Whittlin Jim column also on this slide.

Boiled Lobster

End August 2010

Time to carve: 2.5 hours
Finishing: 1 hours

One thing you notice when vacationing in Plymouth, MA, the gift stores have lots of lobster kick-knacks. So it was only fitting the next pattern in my pack was a lobster. Carved from Oak (because it was the only wood I had that was large enough)this slide took a sharp knife and a lot of patience. The antenna were made from a boom bristles and the eyes a couple of black plastic headed pins. Painted with craft paint and finished with poly.

Jaguar

Mid August 2010

Time to carve: 3.5 hours
Finishing: 1.5 hours

Turning to basswood this time (because the piece I had was the right size)I struggled to try to get this slide to look right. As a result it is about half the size of the block I started with. Once I had it shaped to my satisfaction, I began to paint the slide. I wasn't happy with the orange color I painted it so I gave it a over coat with a linen colored paint. With the orange showing through the linen I got the color I was going for. When all the painting was done, I made the teeth from some scrape white plastic and super glued them in place. It is finished with a couple of coats of poly.

Water Buffalo II

Mid August 2010

Time to carve: 1.5 hours
Finishing: 2 hours

Another case of more than one pattern for slide. The Water Buffalo finds its way to my carving knife again but with a slightly different twist on the horns. Made of maple it was easy to carve but the finish to me makes it stand out. Mistaking this slide with another, I initially stained this slide. Realizing the error, I sprayed the slide with a couple of coats of flat black paint. Interestingly enough, the paint cracked and gave the slide an old look so I decided to finish it off as is with a couple of coats of poly.

Ox Yoke

Early August 2010


Time to carve: .5 hours
Metal work: 1 hour
Finishing: 2 hours

It's funny to me that I always seem to have a couple of slides in the works at the same time and this is no exception. While carving the Hungry Bear, I came across this pattern and thought I would cut it out. A short while later I had the bow yoke made so all I had to do was make ox bow from some metal stock. Well bending the metal wasn't going well until I made a bending jig using a small piece of pipe, some wood screws, and a block of wood. The wood is stained and the metal pieces painted with some black "hammered" paint. Finished off with a coupled of coats of poly.

Hungry Bear

Early August 2010

Time to carve: 5 hours
Finishing: 2 hours

This was a tricky slide to carve! Carved from maple for it's strength (and because I have a good supply, hollowing out the different areas necessary was hard to do. I roughed out as much as I dare do with the band saw but I had to depend on a sharp knife to pull this off. When I finally finished carving, I did not thing the neckerchief would fit through the tiny arm holes. After trying it out, before painting it, I began to see why it was designed like this. The slide "hugs" the neckerchief giving the appearance of the bear peaking out. Kewl! Painted with craft paints, following the article's instructions, and finished off with poly.

Hungry Bass

Early August 2010

Time to carve: 4 hours
Finishing: 2.5 hours

What an unusual slide! I started this slide a couple of times because I just could not get the opening in the mouth quite right. Each time I had to adjust the fish pattern to be larger than I was expecting. The hard part was getting the hole large enough to accept the neckerchief and deep enough to cut out the gills so it would meet the hole in the mouth. Once this was accomplished shaping
the rest of the fish was really easy. I really hated to go much father since the maple fish body looked so good but I still had to add the fins on the back and bottom of the fish. The original pattern called for leather so I found some stiff leather and cut the fins out. I notched the wood and glued the fins in place using some super glue. Painting according to the directions and finishing it with a couple of coats of Poly.