[JBastian]

Somewhere, I can’t find it now was a thread about your first carvings. It spurned some memories; my first carvings were probably in boy scouts, later high school woodshop, maybe 4-5 projects, a neckerchief slide, walking stick, pinewood derby car, and bowls. A few years later I received a carving book with some animals, and set out carving. My friend’s grandfather had a pattern shop at the time. There was a rack of 16/4 sugar pine 12-16 wide 16’ long, it had probably been bought 30 years prior to our discovery. No-one was ever allowed to use the stuff! At least until my friend and I came along. So we carved and carved, we barely touched the stack of pine, but did learn to whittle, and even scored a job in the pattern shop. I decided to photograph those carvings and put them up on the net. http://www.bastian-net.com/carvings/first.htm

[Callynne]

Pretty impressive first carvings Jonathan, Snoopy dog is my favorite! My five year old Grandson loves the dinosaur...of course!

Does your friend still carve? How old were you when you guys took on that pile of wood? Thanks for sharing your first carvings and memories with us! Callynne

[JBastian]

We were 20 at the time, I haven't seen my friend for years but I think he still carves, he took up photography as a profession, which we both enjoyed, and I set out working on old houses, after the pattern shop closed on hard times. If you click over to ‘first people’ you can see the pieces from Higginbotham's book - http://www.bastian-net.com/carvings/first2.htm
By clicking F11 when window opens you can see the whole page without scrolling, I haven't figured out how to force that on the page in code

[Mike-in-WV]

Looks to me like you really had fun with the carvings. I really like the country caricatures, Lol. They look like a few of my neighbors! Mike

[AlArchie]

I'll ditto all the coments, and add; a real pattern shop, WOW! Probably not a lot of folks remember them or what they did. Patten makers were an important part of our industrial development. Good ones were prized by industry and considered one of our more skilled trades (proffesions). You were fortunate to have crossed paths with and gleaned some insight from the pattern maker's trade.

I guess they are still around, but most now work in computer CAD/CAM offices and don't get the benefit of working directly with the transformation of wood to steel.

Al

[farfalla]

Since it was brought up...could someone explain what a pattern maker is? Is this the same thing as a project designer, or is that way off?

[mdallensr]

Pattern makers made a replica of a part that was to be made as a metal casting. The pattern was usually split and mounted to boards that were used to make an impression in sand. Fill the cavity with molten metal and you have a casting. It's a little more detailed than that. Pattern makers were true craftsman, and they used the very best, most stable wood. I still buy mahogany for carving that is rated "pattern grade". You can see a lot of antique foundry patterns used as decorative items and, of course, they're still used in foundries.

[JBastian]

It was a great opportunity to work in the pattern shop! The pattern makers were like extremely detailed wood carvers, each piece or part let’s say a gear for a tractor was first created as said, in wood usually mahogany, in two parts, to very exact standards. Besides sweeping floors the guys quickly let me start making the gating which fed the molten metal to the main part. Even the gating was taken off a blueprint and had to be made with very high standards. I did get in at the end of an era, the last things the guys were making was wood molds, of the plastic dishes/bowls, used to take home food from a grocery store or restaurant. It was amazing to see those things in a blueprint with all their ribs and details get transformed into a wood mold, which was then cast in aluminum, the aluminum had holes in it and sucked the plastic over the form.

[Chahlie]

Hi Jonathan,

nice pics of your early(?) carvings...I'm still working on my early carvings...LOL!

Chahlie
http://community.webshots.com/user/chahlie