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Haven't had a chance to view the entire video, but it's a neat take on a carving mallet.

Just a great tip, for you woodcarvers.

Daylight Savings time begins this coming weekend. Don't be late to Sunday School!!! Our Patriot Turners- Last weeks "Wednesday's..." had a reply from @Gerald showing us some tops he made. His post generated several comments- In case you missed it, here's the link to where the conversation begins- How about that cool way Gerald hold his turnings while the finish dries! Gerald then showed us some of the other tops he has turned- Check this post for more examples- I need to apologize to @Masonsailor. I completely missed his post on the additional work he has done on the Lazy Susan Tulips. Check out the metal work and his installation progress- Member @Bob Hodge posted a beautiful cherry bowl- Bob also asked our opinion concerning finishing the inside of a turning. He received a bunch of responses. Please head on over to his post and maybe you can add to the ideas from our turners- Bob also made us all jealous with this post about his new source of turning wood! How's this for some beautiful grain- Check out where Bob picked up this gorgeous piece of wood- @FrederickH asked our opinion on some shop made turning tools. Check out Rick's post and see if you can add any information to help him out- @Woodbutcherbynight asked our opinion on a technique for turning a narrow mortice- He received several ideas on procedure and tools. What do you think would be the best way to accomplish what he wanted to do? The topic of working with textures continues to receive comments and questions. If you haven't been following along, here is some additional information- What’s Coming Up- Our awesome sponsor, Easy Wood Tools, wanted everyone to know they will be displaying their products at the Secaucus, NJ Woodworking Show. Thanks @Jim from Easy Wood Tools! Also- Click on the above images for links to more information. For The Newbies- You have seen them in the videos and social media. You have probably thought "I can do that!" Well here is your chance to give it a try. Mike Peace shows us the steps for making a small Winged Bowl. Expand Your Horizons- Tim Yoder is always enjoyable to watch turning. With this video, Tim gives us an insight into what the turning might look like when still hidden within the tree. New Turning Items- Saw this while watching a live feed from Carl Jacobson. It's not really a "new " item but it might just open up a new avenue for some of our turning endeavors- A Carving Stand that can be locked into your lathe banjo or bench mounted. It accepts your lathe chuck so you don't have to unmount your turning. Available from- https://trentboschtools.com/product-category/carvingstands/ Everything Else- Well, I finally finished up that hollow vessel (spaceship). Two applications of brush on gloss poly and an application of black acrylic paint on the inside. The black burned rings on either side of the gold leaf aren't as pronounced as I imagined they would be. Live and learn. I am more please with the photo results from the Mike Peace imitated photo booth. I do need to be more careful in making sure all of the dust is removed before taking pictures. I have on final piece of that walnut log. But, this failure is going to mean a different, smaller turning. Just have to figure out how to remount it- Also started an elm bowl from the old tree we had taken down last year. Roughed out and now soaking in the liquid soap/water solution. Safe turning

Folks, I was talking to a young man the other day and he sat in on a Native American bowl making class briefly, back on the east coast. He did not remember what this method of bowl making was called, and I am unable to find anything online about the method. The method of carving a bowl by Native Americans goes way back, as old as our land is. Apparently the Natives would take the timber, char or fire the center of the timber (bowl blank) as to make it easier to carve out the center of the bowl because the center is black and soft. They used the same methods for their dugout canoes, burning the center, to soften the timber or log, and dig it out with implements. Has anyone heard of this method of bowl carving? And if so, what's it called so I can research it, thanks!

This magnificent huge carving was posted on FB without giving the artist credit. It does show him but I hope he gets recognition for such a wonderful carving.

Good day Patriot Woodworkers!!!! If you are looking for a hobby that is fun and portable with little investment – think whittling! Using nothing but a knife and a piece of wood, you can create a project in a matter of minutes, giving instant gratification to even a beginner. Whittling differs from carving in that no chisels,gouges or power tools are used. Carver and author Tom Hindes was a guest at the Fox Chapel Publishing booth at Woodcraft’s National Sales Conference and Vendor Trade Show, held in Columbus, Ohio, in May. Tom’s book, 20-Minute Whittling Projects, is published by Fox Chapel and available at Woodcraft. Tom discovered woodcarving after retirement from his career teaching industrial arts and technical training development. Wanting to work on something small and light, he began carving Noah’s arks, complete with the pairs of animals, and was immediately hooked on carving. Over time, he began focusing on whittling, “carving with one knife” as he classifies it. “Whittling is easy, fast and fun. It’s also portable – you can take it wherever you go,” Tom said. “While some people pull out their cell phones when they’re waiting in a waiting room, I work on my latest project!” Children are naturally drawn to Tom’s work because they like small things and don’t require much detail to figure out what the whittled piece is. “The most interesting place I ever carved was at a funeral home!” Tom laughed. Focusing on what Tom was doing occupied some rambunctious children, much to the relief of their parents during an otherwise trying time. SUPPLIES FOR GETTING STARTED KNIFE – To get started in whittling, Tom recommends an easily transportable knife, like a folding pocketknife, with locking carbon steel blade. Knives with high-carbon steel blades are more expensive than traditional stainless steel knives, but they are easier to sharpen – an important factor in a knife that you will use repeatedly. Also, Tom says a sheepsfoot blade shape is better suited for whittling than a drop-point blade. The tip of the knife should be closely aligned with the main cutting edge, which makes it easier for cutting small details. “Keep a second pocketknife for everyday use, like opening cardboard boxes, to avoid dulling the sharp pocketknife you use for whittling,” Tom advises. If you end of doing a lot of whittling, you may want to invest in some specialized carving knives. The Flexcut Whittlin’ Jack is a nice size knife for your pocket and features two high-carbon steel blades in one – a detail knife and a roughing knife. STROP – A strop maintains the cutting edge of your knife. “I strop my blade before and after every whittling session,” Tom shared. “Sometimes I even strop it during the whittling session.” The WoodRiver® Bench Stropand the Flexcut Knife Strop are two great examples for carvers and whittlers. Add lapping compound to the textured leather surface to keep your blades sharp and ready to go. GLOVE – A carving glove is another good investment to protect the hand as it holds the wood. Woodcraft offers several sizes of safety gloves for carving, from extra extra small (3″ – 4ʺ) up to large (9ʺ -11ʺ). Made from a patented combination of Kevlar, Spectra and stainless steel, these gloves are unsurpassed for cut resistance, durability, softness and wearability. PENCILS – Keep some pencils handy to sketch and draw detail lines onto the wood. “This is also great if you are on the go and you don’t happen to have a pattern – you can just sketch one,” Tom said. WOOD – According to Tom, the main requirement in selecting wood for whittling is that the wood must be able to hold detail – in other words, have a tight wood grain and be knot-free. Basswood is generally the wood of choice for most whittlers, especially for beginning whittlers. Thanks for following along and we hope this little bit of information maybe useful to you. Keep up the great work Patriot Woodworker's!

I love this book, I ordered it from Tools For Working Wood and it's also available on Amazon. The book is a hard cover and full of great illustrations and images. The author Jogge Sundqvist walks you through what is needed to carve bowls, wooden ware and many other useful items for the home and garden. The principal of Slojd is to create self sufficiency in work, from making your own tools, to cutting down a tree or parts of a tree, and processing the wood by hand to bring it to the point of working it into something useful. I have become as of late very interested in wood carving, green woodworking and other bodger type work. I will someday build a pole lathe as well. Jogge walks you through the processes from which tools to purchase for carving, how to keep them sharp, and how to use the special Swedish knife grips that look very intimidating at first, but once you study how ingenious the grips are, and the natural safety stops in place to prevent from cutting oneself, it all makes sense and I cannot wait to get a hold of some green tree limbs and start splitting and working the wood with hatchet and knives. I give this book a big thumbs up. Enjoy!

I am in search of any project or lumber/slab that is Butternut or made primarily from Butternut. I need some project butternut images to install in our wiki page for Butternut, would anyone here like to donate an image(s) of your own work to our wiki? A full reference and credit to you and or your website will be shown. Wiki | Butternut THEPATRIOTWOODWIKI.ORG Wiki If you would like to share your project made from Butternut with us, I would like to use your image in our wiki. Please keep in mind that images used in our wiki become open source and free for use by the public as our wiki is completely open source and in alignment with these copyright rules. Wiki | Copyrights and License THEPATRIOTWOODWIKI.ORG Wiki Thanks in advance for your time, any images of butternut are needed, slabs, finished work, boards, etc.

It wasn't a surprise that I found a project in the catalog "Spice Chests of Chester County". I had been looking for a challenging project and found one in the duplication of one of the spice chests. Using only photographs, I proceeded to draw up a full scale drawing of the chest. This alone was a challenge and took me many tries to get the drawing to look right in both size and proportion. Little did I know that the rosettes and finials were Victorian replacements. When "Fine Woodworking" came out with articles on Philadelphia finials and rosettes, I removed the Victorian ones and replaced them with period correct ones. The primary wood is walnut, the secondary woods poplar. The chest is a 1/2 scale of a tall chest-on-chest(tallboy) made in Philadelphia, c. 1775 and is made in two sections.. the lower and upper portion. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take photographs during the build.

I love this book. I picked it up on Amazon awhile back and finally got a chance to read through it and view the different holding techniques for the method of Slojd carving. I have been interested now for sometime in carving by Slojd, I have delved into the world of Jogge Sundqvist who is the son of the author of this book, Wille Sundqvist. And now I have Wille Sundqvist seniors book in my hands and I can't wait to set knife to wood. This book is a paper back, and the publication of this specific version is 1990, and has been updated through 2013 I believe. Though this book is considered by many to be the big Kahuna of Slojd carving books, as some may say Wille Sundqvist was pretty much the final word on this subject. Wille first carved as a boy in his grandparents kitchen. Slojd has a deep tradition and roots in Sweden, the essence of Slojd is the ability to be self sufficient and make things you need to use, practically, such as utensils, bowls and much more. Slojd also teaches to use the forest wisely. This book goes through all the tried and proven Slojd knife holds, the grips, the actions, the proper way to pin arms at your side as you carve, and yes, there are many images of using a knife and cutting towards your body, but not too worry, Slojd tradition has worked out the kinks over time, and the incredibly powerful knife holds you learn actually have stops built into the carving actions, so that the knife stays and cuts where it is supposed too. In this book Wille goes through in depth the sharpening of curved hook knives, straight knives, and hatchets, there is also much dedication to the use of hatchets in roughing out your project, and even fine shaving your work. There is a companion video available for this book somewhere, I have not looked for it yet, but I think it would be a wonderful addition to an already great book. If you are interested in carving the Swedish/Slojd way, I highly recommend this book. Cheers! Links of Interest Wille Sundqvist passes away Honoring Wille Sundqvist Slojd Carving Spoons by the son (Jogge Sundqvist) of Wille Sundqvist. Media The Author Wille Sundqvist in an old video from 1982