Slide of the month extra - Woody's Cosmo Crow

 

February 2023

Time to make: 2 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design:  Woody's Make-Your-Own












Another in the Woody's series, I'm a bit baffled about the name "Cosmo" the Cosmic Crow. What makes the crow cosmic? Perhaps has something to do with a meaning of "the keepers of spiritual law". Or maybe as the messenger between the real world and spirit world.  But then again, it could but be from the cartoon series Fox and the Crow. (Heckle and Jeckle were cartoon magpies.)

Made from basswood, I reproduced the profile on the side and drilled a 3/4 in hole down the middle. Cutting out the profile was quick and, with the exception of the eyes, the rounding was easy to do. I sanding the slide and painted it with hobby paints. A couple coats of poly finished it off

Slide of the Month - The Fox

February 2023

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

Feb. 1998, page 59

Original design: Jeff Springer

"The secret of the fox 

Ancient mystery

Somewhere deep in the woods

I know you're hiding

What is your sound?

Will we ever know?

Will always be a mystery

What do you say?"

Carved from maple and painted with hobby paints. I really like the green eyes on this one. Finished with a couple of coats of Poly and a wooden loop glued to the back

Slide of the Month Extra - Woody's Sioux Chief

January 2023

Time to make: 52 years ( or 3 hours this time around)

Finishing: 1 hour

 
Original design:  Woody's "Make-your-own"









So it's my first (or was it the second) year at summer camp and the wonders of the trading post filled my heart with joy. There were patches, camping stuff, merit badge books and best of all materials for certain merit badges. I still have the foot stool I made in basketry! But try as I might, I could never could complete a Woody's "Make-Your-Own" neckerchief slide and this represents the first one I bought.  (Kudos to my buddy Mike Ryan who was able to make one.)

 

The price was 29 cents? Though I paid a dollar...

So if you can find these today they go from $20 to $50 dollars as collector items but oddly enough I went forward just using some bass wood and did my best to duplicate the side view. I really wanted to use the knife I also bought that summer (a grey plastic knife with interchangeable blades) but I'm afraid that is long gone. Anyway, using my favorite knife, I slowly cut our the profile. This is always where I make my mistakes at summer camp by trying to hurry and take to large of cuts ruining the slide. Once the profile was cut out, I took a pencil and drew out the lined across the front and other side. Next I began rounding the slide making sure to redraw the lines as needed to keep consistency. The details came next as the feathers, for example, took some time.  The one area I did not  spend time in was the face as I hate carving faces. I did a fair amount of sanding getting ready for painting with hobby paints. A couple coats of poly finished it off. 

Slide of the Month- Basketball

 

January 2023

Time to make: 1 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

 

Boy's Life: Feb. 1978 p. 52

Original design:  Wayne Mason







January reminds me of days past when in high school gym class it was basketball time. The good glass hoops were raised and the practice hoops were lowered so I saw this time of hoop almost every day. 

Made from a thin piece of hobbyist plywood painted white. Ring of the hoop is made from a thing piece of wire and a couple of holes were drilled into the plywood to hold the wire. Before attaching the wires, I threaded some netting I recycled from a bag of vegetables (onions I think). The wires were then passed through the holes and one wire was bent 90 degrees upwards and the other 90 degrees downward. I then glued the wires to the back of the board. The "targeting" rectangle was done using waterslide paper. A couple of coats of poly finish it off   

Slide of the Month Extra - The Nutcracker

    

     Christmas day 2022

     Time to make: 3 hours

     Finishing: 1.5 hour

     Original design:  Bill Macfarlane













A long time ago (last Friday to be exact), I thought I might like to try making a nutcracker slide for the holiday season. After researching learning how to make a working nutcracker in a size I could use for a neckerchief slide, I realized this wasn't that different from making the joined monkey slide. 

Make from different sized dowels, I started with a large dowel and carved and hour glass shape for the body. I cut a slot in the body and began working on the working jaw mechanism. After figuring out where to drill the hole, I used a long nail to drill through the body into the jaw and out the other side of the body. The nail was purposely long enough to also mount the arms (made from smaller dowels). A small drop of super glue  to secure the arms to the nail and when I use the lever to close the jaw the arms also move.  Next using the same large dowel, I carved the head and the hat then using pins and glue secure them to the body.  Using a slightly larger dowel, I cut out the legs and made feet which I glued and pined to the legs. The legs were then glued and pined to the body. The hands were make from some flat beads and glued/ pinned to the arms. I painted the slide with hobby paints before gluing the hair to the chin and head.

Happy Holidays and I be back next year!

Slide of the Month Extra - Matchbox/Hotwheels

December 2022

Time to make:  1/2 hours

Finishing: 0 hours

Original design: Bill Macfarlane





When I was very young, Matchbox diecast cars and trucks were a mainstay with cars racing around and construction vehicles building roads in the sand box. A few years latter, it was a upstart company Hot Wheels cars racing down orange flexible tracks. A great number of years later, a collection of fire, rescue, and ambulance vehicles from many different companies in my collection. (OK, I have a few space ones too...)

The other day I happened to see this mini-sub and thought it might make for an interesting slide. I simply drilled a couple of holes into the back and crazy glued a wire loop into the holes. Quick, easy, and a good looking slide!

Slide of the Month -The Viking

December 2022

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

Aug. 1998, page 54

Original design: Jeff Springer












Now there are two thing that come to mind when I think of Vikings. The first is a great series from the History channel and the second a silly reference from Monty Python's Flying Circus. (spam, spam spam, spam...)

I like this slide as it is somewhat chip carving and somewhat finished. Carved from maple and painted with hobby paint. It is finished with a couple coats of poly and it has a coat hanger loop.

Slide of the Month Extra - Easter Island Head (Enhanced)

 

November 2022

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour
Boy's Life
Original design:  Bill Macfarlane













So recently I came accross a slide I was doing as an example for a zoom Wood Carving merit badge a couple of years ago. It was a Easter Island Head slide and I already have a couple of these in my collection so I thought I would modify it a bit. 

 Carved from pine it started as the basic head. To enhance the head, I first cut elongated eye slots - easy enough. Next the mouth was opened and holes cut into the ear area. Lastly, I cut what was the forhead into more of a headdress - nice! I finished it off with hobby paints and a couple of coats of poly.

Slide of the Month Extra - Glass Bead knots

October 2022

Time to make: don't remember

Finishing: none

Original design:  Corning Glass / Bill Macfarlane

So something a little different. I was out at Corning Glass and had the chance to make a couple of glass beads. My original thought was these would fit my wife's Pandora bracelet but when we received them in the mail (the beads had to cool) they didn't fit. It was then I thought these would make really nice neckerchief  end knots. 

 

Slide of the Month - Howling Coyote

October 2022

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

June 1992, page 63

Original design: Jeff Springer












One of the things I like about Jeff Springer's designs are the simplistic elegance as in this howling coyote. (You might want to turn down your speakers if you click the link.)

Carved from maple and painted with hobby paints. Finished with a couple coats of poly.

Slide of the Month - Bug eyed bird

September 2022

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

UNKNOWN PUBLISH DATE

Original design:  Jeff Springer

Another Boy's Life mystery afoot! If you follow the link above, the slide looks like any other Jeff Springer Slide of the Month but yet I can't find it published in a printed Boy's Life. Perhaps its in an issue not on the wayback machine? My guess is this was a slide meant for publication but the editorial staff of Boy's Life decided to do away with Slide of the Month  before it was published and put this one online instead. 

UPDATE: The link no longer works but I still have it in my records.

Carved from maple and painted with hobby paints. It's finished with a couple coats of poly.

Slide of the month - Observation tester

August 2022

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

Nov. 1971, page 68

Design by: John Taylor









How observant are the Scouts during a meeting? John tell the story of (former?) Scoutmaster Dr. Rizika of Troop 502 Miami, FL who would change the slide midway through the Troop meeting to see if anyone noticed.

This slide was carved using a dried limb from a sugar maple. The hardest part carving was trying to make both arrowheads as similar as possible before painting. Painted with hobby paints and finished with a couple of coats of poly

Slide of the Month Extra-Philmont Hymn

 

July 2022

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design:  Philmont / Bill Macfarlane

Slide of the month Extra: Philmont Crew 7-11C

 

July 2022

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Bill Macfarlane

Side of the month extra: Philmont Tooth Ridge (dry) camp

July 2022

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 2 hours

Original design: Bill Macfarlane

Day 12 and Tooth ridge camp is (hopefully) is the only dry camp we will be at. This may be the heaviest our packs will be as we have taken on food and extra water at Miners Park. Each of us will have an addition 2 to 3 liters of water strapped to us and, at 2.2 pounds per liter, with the 4 liters we will normally be carrying on the trail, that's 15 pounds!

Both of these are carved from pallet pine and and took on there basic form quite quickly. The hard part of these slide was figuring our the hydration tubes. After looking around my shop for awhile I found some gas line tubes left over from another project.  Well, shoot what am I going to do for mouth pieces? Back to searching the shop until I came upon an idea - spray can nozzle's. (I keep a few spare around incase I have a can with a blocked opening.) Cutting away the outside shell so I only had the inner part of the nozzle, I now had something I could shape into the mouth pieces for these slides. Mounting the tube on the water bottle was easy as I only had to drill a hole in the top and glue it in. The water bladder took a bit more thought. What I settled on was to both glue it on and to form the connection point using super glue gel and some baking powder . The combination of them both forms a hard quick drying bond. To finish the slides off I used hobby paints, waterslide paper for the lettering, and a couple of coats of poly.

Slide of the month extra - Philmont Trail Peak B24 Liberator

 

2022

Time to make: 1.5 hours

Finishing: 2 hour

Original design:  Philmont / Bill Macfarlane

Slide of the Month Extra- Philmont Phillips Junction Commissary

  July 2022

  Time to make: 3 hours

  Finishing: 1 hour

  Original design: Philmont/Bill Macfarlane

Slide of the month extra - Philmont Rocky Mountain Fur Company Trap

 

July 2022

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Bill Macfarlane

Slide of the month extra - Philmont Comanche Creek

 

July 2022

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1.5 hours

Original design:  Bill Macfarlane

Slide of the Month Extra - Apache Springs decision

 

July 2022

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design:  Bill Macfarlane