O.A. Slide

Late April 2010

Time to carve: .5 hours
Other work: 1
Finishing: 1.5 hour


Made from some very thin birch plywood, the OA and the arrow were cut out and sanded. The W's were made from brass, basically cut out using tin snips, and filed to a finish. I painted the wood using craft paints and coated it with a couple of coats of poly. Something odd happened with the finish and the brass discolored in the corners probably because it was a water based and most likey I will remove it from the brass and try an oil based poly on the brass.

Pedro's Lucky Shoe

Late April 2010

Time to carve: 1 hours
Finishing: 1.5 hour

Next in my list was Pedro's Lucky shoe was the next slide in line and after doing the Pedro - His Mark slide it was an easy one to visualize. Made of Maple, this project took very little time after roughing it out on the band saw. Wought iron was a natural for the color of the slide and a couple of coats of poly finish.

Sailors Rosette

Mid April 2010

Time to carve: 0 hours
Other work: 1
Finishing: 1 hour

After spending some time in Mystic CT and seeing one of the largest Sailor's Rosette I had ever seen, I was reminded of a Whittlin Jim slide pattern. Now while the photo doesn't do it Justice, this really looks great! I made the weaving frame using some scrape pine and some brad nails. Leftover cotton clothes line forms the rosette. I needed to study the weaving pattern but quickly got the hang of it and once removed from the form, it was an easy task to tighten the rosette to the final knot. To form the loop, I tied the loose ends together with some thread. Finishing took a couple of coats of shellac.

Hits and misses

Kudos to halfeagle.com one of the coolest list of Scouter blogs I have ever seen. Also a great blog called Scoutmaster with good information and podcasts that I am looking forward to listening to when I get home. (On vacation right now and have a slide I am going to make based on a large one I saw here but more on that in another post.) I would recommend these sites to all scouts and scouters.

Misses? "Where did your site go?" asked my sister-in-law today me today. Huh? For some reason my site was removed for a time today but hopefully will stay up and I haven't broken a "terms of service" rule.

Diving Eagle

Early to Mid April 2010
Time to carve: 4 hours
Finishing: 1 hour

At 7 1/2 inches this is the largest slide I have carved to date. (Actually the Giant Titanus Beetle is larger but that is just because of the antennas.) Carved from maple (yeah, I am on a maple kick)for its strength, this slide took quite a while to carve. I roughed it out on the bandsaw but even with this advantage, there was a lot of wood that had to be removed by hand before I could begin shaping the slide. Going forward, the wings needed to take on an elongated oval shape and

my knife didn't perform this task very well. The best way I found was to use sandpaper to shape the way I wanted. The feet had to be carefully carved as not to break off any of the parts. When finally finished carving and sanding I set forth painting this piece. I made one change from the original pattern when it came to the color scheme. The beak and the feet were suppose to be a cream color but when I painted them that color it just didn't look right. My wife has been following a live web cam of the birth of several Bald Eagles so I asked her what color they should be and went with it. (She's so smart.) A couple of coats of poly finish it off.

I like this slide so much, I going to save this till our next eagle ceremony and wear it then.

Hungry Frog

Late Late March - Early April 2010

Time to carve: 4 hours
Finishing: 1 hour

I like slides, sometimes, that don't require a loop to be attached to the back of it. The neckerchief simply passes through the body of the slide. Why? Well these slides tend to be a bit more tricky to carve and the Hungry Frog is a good example of this. Made from maple, for strength, the hole in the center is not straight through but take a curve following the curve of the back of the frog.

I hated to paint this one once it was sanded because it was such a great looking natural wood slide but it would be hard to see what it was at a distance. Painted with craft paints and coated with a couple of coats of poly

Artist's Palette

End March 2010

Time to carve: .5 hours
Finishing: 1 hour

One of the easiest slides I have made thus far! I had some thin pile wood scrap around
(from another project) and a quick trip around with a jig saw did the trick. Drill the hole and then elongate it with knife to accept the brush. I ended up having to do some carving on the brush too to make it all fit together correctly. Some dabs of color and a couple of coats of poly to finish it off.