Side of the Month - Baden Powell hat

January 2019

Time to carve: 1 hour

Finishing: .5 hour

Boy's Life -July 1992, page 71

Design: James C. Hansen Sr.







I've always been fascinated with the Scouting Campaign hat but alas, I've never owned one. It seemed to me, as a Scout, that most of the old Scouters had both one of these and a red wool jacket. These guys seemed to know every Scout skill and had some of the best Scouting stories around the campfire. Come to think about, a lot of folks in authority wear a similar style hat (i.e. Conservation Officers, State Policemen, drill Sargent's just to name a few)

Carved from Basswood, I love to say this is perfectly round but it's not. The brim has a taper and the indentations in the hat were carved in a v pattern cut.  The hat cord is some nylon string and the ends are made from a dowel with a very small hole drilled through them. The cord is held in place using superglue.  It's painted with craft paints and finished with a couple of coats of poly.

Slide of the Month - Whistle Slide

August 2018

Time to make: 1 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

August 1979,  page 52

Original design: Tom Dwyer









A fun functional little slide with high note and a lower note that kind of reminds me of an English Bobby's whistle. I not sure how a whistle really stops crime but I'm sure if that didn't work there is always "Stop or I'll say Stop again"

I started with a scrap piece of maple that just happened to be the size I needed. I marked the centers on both sides and drilled a 1/4 in hole  2 inches deep on one side and 2 1/2 inches on the other side. (The difference in the depth give the whistle the different tones.) Next I cut the 90 degree with a coping saw the cut the angle cut down to the 90 cut. To make the whistle work I cut a 1/4 inch dowel an inch long and flattened just the top down the length of the dowel. A lot of how much to take off is trial and error so I would put the dowel into the mouth piece, blow into it and if it didn't work take off a little more. When I got a sound I glued it in place and repeated the process on the other side. Now when gluing, the plug wasn't inserted deeper that the mouth piece so about a half inch will stick out of the whistle. When everything was dry, I cut off the excess plug and then began to shape the whistle. A bit of sanding to finish the shaping and round the rough edges before finishing with some shellac. A word of warning here, there is a good chance that any hard finish may block the little hole in the mouth piece as it dries. So if I had to do it again, I might use some foil to block the hole (hindsight).  To finish it off, I drilled some holes, in the half inch section with no other holes, and super glued a coat hanger loop into them

Pueblo Indian Pottery

Mid Jan. 2010

Time to carve: 1.5 hours
Finishing: 2 hours




It's been a very long week at work and this is the third slide I've carved. (Late to bed and early to rise make it so you can't open your eyes-unknown.) There is really something that speaks to me with this slide...so simple yet so hard to shape it correctly. If that wasn't tough enough, then there comes the detail on the pottery. Carved from pine with lots of sanding to get it ready for painting. Finding the right color for the pot was quick, since I had a good color on hand, and the detail was done using a fine line paint pen. (Steady hands help too!) A couple of coats to Poly finish this off.

Surfboard

Plaque Slides

Mid Jan. 2010

Time to Carve: 0 hours
Finishing: 2 Hours

Really there was no carving involved in these two slides. Now normally I like to spend time carving because it relaxes me but this project was all scroll saw, sandpaper, and paint. (Well, I guess I still got some satisfaction from these slides.) The main body of the slides are made from pine and the raised Scout emblem was cut from a thin strip of poplar. Painted with craft paints and finished off with a couple of coats of poly.

Pirate Cannon

Mid Jan. 2010

Time to carve: 1.5 hours
Finishing: 1.5 hours


Another fun slide to make!. The cannon is made from a 5/8 inch dowel, as is the wheels, and the case of the cannon is from scrap poplar. The cross piece, that swivels under the brass fittings, is a 1/8 dowel glued in place from the hole drilled through the cannon. Painted with craft paints and finished off with a couple of coats of poly. The hardest part I had with this slide was trying to take a picture of the slide as it would look to another person when you are wearing it. This proved to be impossible so I have moved the slide to show the details.

Little Stinker

Mid Jan. 2010


Time to carve 1.5 hours

Finishing 2 hours

The name fits this slide in so many ways but more on that latter. The body, made from poplar, of this slide was an easy carve but the head called for a chestnut. Hmmm...fresh out of chestnuts here but I could carve a suitable replacement (and I wouldn't have to glue on the ears). Now the textured "fur" presented a bit of a problem. The pattern called for coffee grounds to be glued onto the body. But where to get coffee grounds since no one in this household drinks coffee. Well, I happened to be out with my son to an archery event and they had coffee made for the adults. Now it must have seemed like a weird request when I asked for the used coffee grounds but I left after the event with a plastic baggie full of warm grounds. Bringing them home, I spread the grounds on a few paper towels and waited for them to dry. Man the smell of coffee permeated our house for a couple of days before the ground were completely dry. Even gluing them to the slide reactivated the smell of coffee and was making us all sick of the smell. It wasn’t until I painted the slide with black spray paint (or maybe after the poly) that we finally lost the smell of the grounds.

Lincoln Log Cabin

Early Jan. 2010

Time to carve: 2 hours
Finishing 2 hours

After making the block house, I was happy to see this log cabin had notched logs like I would have expected. Pine forms the base to glue the pieces and I used simple wood glue. Made from 1/8 inch dowels there is about 4 and 1/2 feet of dowel in this slide. It has a real cedar roof (made from the ends of some cedar shims I had laying around) and the chimney was painted to simulate the stones. The window was made by painting the opening and using tooth picks for the frame. A couple of coats of Poly finish this off.

Painted Turtle

Early Jan. 2010

Time to carve:1.5 hours
Finishing: 2 hours

An interesting slide to do because it is the underside of the painted turtle and not the top that is being displayed. In fact, I was asked by my wife why I was doing the underside and my son was quick to answer the question. (He sees a couple of painted turtles at the museum he works in every week.) What I found fascinating while researching how I should paint the side I discovered that the only certainty is that no two painted turtles have the same pattern. Painted with craft paints and finished with a couple of coats of poly.

Gaff the Sailor

Early Jan. 2010


Time to Carve: 2 hours

Finishing: 1.5 hours


Faces, oh how I hate to do faces! Carved from poplar, I struggled with this one as I tried to get the face looking like the pattern. When I finished the carving I discovered that I messed up the cap and the mouth. Well I left the mouth the way it is and I packed the cap with plastic wood. Twenty-four hours latter I was cutting and sanding the rock hard putty to my liking. I wasn't sure how this would look until I painted the slide and after painting I can't tell where the wood ended and the plastic wood started. I also wanted to give this sailor a deep weather tan like he had been at sea for many months in the South Pacific. A couple of coats of Poly finish this off.

Tepee

Mid Dec. 2009, Early Jan. 2010


Time to carve: 1.5

Finishing: 2.5


I must admit that I really didn't like this slide when I started it and that is why I let it sit for several weeks before I finished the slide. Carved from pine with glued toothpicks forming the poles of the tepee, I gave it a base coat of white paint and let it dry. When I came back to it the next day, I was really unimpressed. I set it aside disappointed in the slide and went on to another slide. Early in January, I had a couple of slides ready for painting and decided to finish this one off if for nothing else but to say I finished the slide. Once I started painting the details, I began to see the beauty of this slide.

Giant Titanus Beetle

Early Jan. 2010

Time to carve: 2.5 hours
Finishing: 1.5

By far the largest slide in my collection measuring in at 6 inches from pincher to bottom (longer if you include the antennas). This slide has had mixed reactions. My son thinks this is "kwel" while my wife and daughter had the same reaction...

EEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Carved from poplar, the body was quite simple but the neck, head, and pinchers took some time to do. The antennas are made from plastic broom bristles which keeps them quite flexible. The legs are made from a coat hanger and form the loops for the neckerchief. The dents in the wings were made using a nail punch just pressed into the wood lightly. The slide was finished using gloss black spray paint.

Speckled (rainbow) Trout

Early Jan. 2010

Time to carve: 3 hours
Finishing: 2 hours

This is a one piece slide. Now what I mean by this is the loop is carved into the slide from the same piece of maple as used for the fish. I used maple for it's strength and tight grain for the finished slide. Carving this slide took some time since it is smaller that most of slides I have been doing lately and because of the detail. When it came to finishing this slide I went out to Google looking for a picture of a Speckled Trout. After seeing what it looked like, I struck on another idea. What if I painted it to look like a Rainbow Trout instead?  It is painted with craft paints and finished with a couple of coats of Poly.  It is too bad that I forgot a fin or two while making the slide but I still think it still came out nice in the end.

Bacon & Eggs

Early Jan. 2010

Time to carve: 2 hours
Finishing: 2 hours

There is something about this slide (mmmmmm....Bacon)
that I truly love. Carved from pine,  it took a couple of tries to get the eggs and bacon right as I began to cut away the wood from the pan. One slip and you didn't have enough wood to form the things in the pan. Once I had the pan all carved out the egg yoke took form and on a lower level the egg white and bacon. All that while still trying to keep from nicking the top layer or edge of the pan. (Yikes!) Lots of sanding on this one too! A steady hand was required in painting the detail because there is not much room between the sides of the pan, eggs, and bacon. I used craft paints and a couple of coats of poly to finish it off.

Copper Foil

Jan 2010

Time to carve:0 hours
Metal Work: 1.5 hours
Finishing: 1.5 hours

Thin copper on a scrap piece of pine. The design is something call a Scout Knott which I printed out and glued to the copper. Taking a small blunt nail and tracing the design by taping the nail into the copper foil denting the metal. Once I finished the design I removed the paper. To darken the background I used a black craft paint wash, let it dry, then polished the copper with a paper towel. A couple of coats of poly and a ring glued to the back finish this slide off.

Locomotive

Early to Mid Dec 2009

Time to carve: 5 hours
Finishing: 2.5

After a couple of easy slides I tackled this on and

boy was this a challenge. Now you would normally look at a project like this one and say 'that doesn't look that hard' well it is a lot more time consuming than it looks. This is made in pieces, and as such is made from pine and poplar, then glued together. I also added my own touch to this work on the wheels and in it's finish. As a child I often heard about the railroad that use to run near my parents house. To my surprise recently, I also learned another branch ran to Ogdensburgh, NY where I spent a couple of years with a former employer. It also ran yet another branch to Bellows Falls VT, which I have visited an office of my current employer many times. I seen HO railroad sets locally with this railroad featured. So naturally I decided to paint my locomotive like the trains of the Rutland Railroad

Hide Frame

Early Dec. 2009

Time to carve: .5 Hours
Finishing: 1 hour

Well even less carving with this one (just notching the dowels) but the interesting part of this slide was stretching the piece of leather on the frame. After making the frame and cutting the leather to look like an animal hide, the sewing took time and patience. Starting with a long piece of waxed cord and a glovers needle (it came in kit of specialty needles), I worked my way around the leather pulling the cord tight only after I had finished sewing. The decoration was created using paint pens. A couple coats poly finish it off.

Jenny Wren House

Late Nov. 2009

Time to Carve: 1 hour
Finishing: 1 hour

Really an easy slide to carve and paint. (There is really not much more to say on this one.)

Pedro-His Mark

Late Nov. 2009

Time to carve: 2 hours
Finishing: 1 hour

Funny story about this slide. I carved it out of pine and gave it a couple of coats of gloss black paint. But when I went to attach the "coat hanger" slide back into the holes I drilled in the back of the slide, I kept trying to fill the hole with crazy glue but every time I when to put the wire into the hole the glue was gone. It took a few times before I realized the holes I drilled in the back of the slide met up with the nail holes on the horse shoe. The glue was running out the front of the slide and down my shirt . Always learning.

Jolly Roger

Late Nov. 2009

Time to Carve: 2 hours
Finishing: 2 Hours

Yo, ho, hum and a bottle of...well in my case a bottle of Diet Coke. (I really should drink Coke before bed.) Carved in pine with a 1/4 inch dowel glued to the flag. The top of the dowel is a wooden bead drilled to fit the dowel. Painted with craft paint and coated with poly.