In May I will have been writing this blog for a decade and the best part of that decade for me has been having my grand children spend time with me in my shop. Second best is making things for them. The boy and three girls have progressed from watching, to sweeping and finally to making.
During this past Christmas holiday my grandson (the eldest) and I did some wood carving together. A while ago we did soap carving. (Dec 14,2015), the soap flakes got in his eyes and up his nose and so did not make a good first impression. This time he and I did real wood carving with real tools.
After fitting him with safety gloves and warning him about one thousand times to be very careful he carved a practice piece.
The piece was 1 1/4 square and five inches long. One of these days we'll make the same practice piece on the lathe. Working on this piece he learned he liked palm chisels better than knives and practised cutting away from himself. In several hours of carving we had no accidents, I'm both pleased and proud of that. Oma and Mother as relieved too.
The next piece K carved was a narwhal.
There was plenty of material to remove to get the square block to a mostly round shape. As well as chisels K got to learn about rasps and the disc sander. He worked carefully and wore his dust mask when using the power sander.
The other thing that he made was a boat. He loves to make boats.
I think for a first effort his day's work was excellent. He learned technique, safety and invested several hours on these and other projects. It was an excellent day for both of us.
As the new year begins, Happy New Year, best wishes for good health, good times and good luck.
Sincerely,
Ian W @ walwoodwork@gmail.com
