Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Slide of the Month Extra - Tooth of Time




April 2020

Time to make: 1.5 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane









One of the most iconic symbols of Philmont, you can find the Tooth of Time as a part of quite a few of the patches and other items at Philmont. This represents not only an early patch but also the logo for the Tooth of Time Traders.

Carved from southern yellow pine, the mountain rises off the slide to give the patch a 3D effect. The slide was painted with hobby paints, lettered with water slide paper, and finished off with a couple coats of poly.

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Slide of the Month Extra - National Scouting Museum




April 2020

Time to make: 1 hour

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane








So one of the things I'm looking for when I get to Philmont is getting a tour of the Scouting Museum and hope to see some of Whittlin' Jim's original works.

Carved from southern yellow pine, it is a fleur-de-lis on an arrowhead and the simplicity of the design is a clean modern look. Painted with hobby paints and waterslide lettering, the slide is finished off with a couple coats of poly.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Slide of the Month Extra - Philturn




April 2020

Time to make: 2.5 hours

Finishing: 2 hours

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane








As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I was really confused when I saw patches for Philturn Rockey Mountain Scout Camp. Was this some other councils summer camp? Perhaps another high adventure program? There must be an answer! (Yes, I Googled it eventually.) Philmont Scout Ranch, as we know it today, began in 1938 after Tulsa oilman Waite Phillips donated his summer home Villa Philmont , the UU ranch of 35,857 acres and livestock to the Boy Scouts of America.  The name Philturn come from a combination of the Phillipps last name and the Boy Scout slogan "Do a good turn daily". A great page to see some of the early days of Philturn Rockey Mountain Scout Camp can be found here.

Carved from pallet southern yellow pine, this is a multi-level slide (even though it doesn't look like it in the picture. The Philturn logo is the top-level followed by the Tooth of Time. The near foreground is next with the sky and lake rounding out the center. The lowest level is the circle on the outside and the three spikes extending to the base of the slide. Hobby paints and paint pens were used to decorate the slide with waterslide paper for the lettering. A couple of coats of poly finish the slide.

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Slide of the Month Extra - Tooth of Time marker




April 2020

Time to make: 1 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane








A no-carve slide but I still like it. The geographic marker was printed on waterslide paper and then transferred to a painted wooden birch thin plywood round. Finished off with a couple coats of Poly.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Slide of the Month Extra - Philmont OA Trail Crew




April 2020

Time to make: 1 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane








The Order of the Arrow Trail Crew work on the trails at Philmont in cheerful service. But it's not all work, there is a comradeship of the members of OA and during the second week at Philmont the members can take advantage of all Philmont can offer. Get a feel of what it's like to be on Trail Crew here

Kind of a simple slide to make cutting the pick and ax into southern yellow pine and painting with hobby paints. The lettering was done with waterslide paper and it was finished off with a couple coats of poly.

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Slide of the Month Extra - Philturn brand

April 2020

 Time to make: 1 hour each

 Finishing: 1 hour

 Original design: Philmont / Bill Macfarlane
















One of the symbols you can see in almost every patch, slide or any Philmont item is the brands. Heck, you can even brand something you own like a hat, a belt, a piece of leather or a mug (as long as it will take the heat). Now I'd only had seen the cattle (bar P and backward S) and horse (/ and backward S) on most of the Philmont stuff but recently I saw a brandable plastic mug with the Philturn brand from one of our Philmont crew trainers. (Yes, a brandable mug! (It had really thick plastic walls.) After doing some research, I found out that the original name of Philmont Scout Ranch was Philturn Rocky Mountain Scout Camp and this brand (the combined T and P) was the original cattle brand.

So this was an easy set of slides to make! I started with an old weathered board from a broken pallet and cut them into a reasonable size allowing for the broken parts to remain on the slide. I traced out the brand onto the board and cut the brands into the wood. Once the cuts were made, I used a soldering iron to burn the cuts to look like brands. On some of the outside edges, I roughly rounded the wood and then charred them with a lighter. Finally, I finished them off with a couple of coats of Poly.


Bonus!! While looking up brands in New Mexico I discovered an additional Philmont brand at Raydo.



Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Slide of the Month - Kachina




April 2020

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

May 1984, page 67

 Original design: Fritz Hines

Leather design: Bill Macfarlane





As I understand it, Kachina are friendly and helpful spirits to the Pueblo Indians. Kachina dolls, carved wooden and brightly painted miniature replicas of ceremonial dancers, are given to children as precious objects to be treasured and studied (not played with like a toy). There are over 200 different Kachinas.

Carved from maple I like the lines of this slide - it just feels right! The headdress is made from thin birch plywood and the feet are made from dowels. While it is hard to see in the photo, the eyes and mouth are both recessed into the wood. I painted most of the side with hobby paints with the details being done with paint paints. It is finished off the a couple of coats of Poly.