Broke my first piece - Looking for dimensions on Paul Bunyon tooth

[rjw@watson-law.com]

Well, I finally "jumped in" and tried to carve my first Boy Scout neckerchief slide. I failed. I have previously taken two classes at the wood shop & have 2 unfinished (I will finish them, I promise) faces; a Santa and an Elf. I had so much fun working in the class on the faces that I thought I would try what I really want to do which is to carve some Boy Scout neckerchief slides. I thought I would combine the ball in cage project with the slide project. I found a pattern with a ball in cage with a chain link on each end. Over the New Year's weekend, I worked on it, cutting the tip on one finger and stabbing myself through the mesh carving gloves. (It prevents cuts, not stabs!) I had two blocks. I broke off the end (the links) on the first piece, but I was making what I thought was really good progress carving out the ball on the second piece until I got to the very end of trying to cut the ball free of the rails. I broke two of the rails as I was making one of the cuts. I am keeping it, & will bring it to the instructor at the next carving class next month. Maybe he can figure out a way to salvage it. I'm a little bummed, but I guess you have to mess up a lot of projects before you get it right.

I am now going to try something that I hope is easier, Paul Bunyon's Hollow Tooth. I have the "instructions" from the Whittling Jim reprint, but it does not contain any measurements. (The photo says "actual size," but I don't know what that is. I am thinking 2" X 2 1/2 or 3" but I am not sure. I need it fat enough to drill a hole for the neckerchief, but not so fat that it is too heavy and just keeps falling off.

I spent all my time trying to carve the ball and cage, & feel a little discouraged coming up empty. I want to make sure that this one works. Suggestions? Measurements? Comments? Thanks.

Roy

[lorax]

While I don't think there is any official measurements for that carving, You should be able to take the known size of the slide you want to make (my son's average about 4") then use the relative dimensions to come up with the measurements.

If you want the tooth 4"- the crown and the roots are about equal in length, so each are about two inches. It is about as wide as the crown is tall, so 2" wide. Because teeth are rectangular instead of square, make it 1 3/4 deep. After you have a 1 3/4" X 2" X 4" block, make a corner to corner X on the top, and drill the hole, probably 3/4" should be big enough. Then whittle away. If you want to evenly space out the roots, carve the bottom approximately round, then mark off three points 120 degrees on the bottom of the tooth.

If you make firewood from some, you are in a large group, so don't be discouraged. I have been carving for over 20 years, and I still toss out the occasional mistake. You just make less of them as you go along. Have fun, that's the important part.

[Tom Ellis]

Roy, Super glue works wonders in repairing some broken carvings. Use the thin stuff, and your wood piece should fit together perfectly if it was a clean break. Hold the piece together so it fits good, then just put a drop of super glue on the crack. Through capillary action, the glue will wick down through the wood, and you will have a good strong bond. Make sure you don't get it on your finger, or you will be wearing a wooden ring instead of a neckerchief slide.

Good luck, Tom

[rjw@watson-law.com]

Patrick:

That was pretty much my guess. Good tip on how to center the hole. Thanks. I have a block of basswood that was 2 X 4 X 12, so I can easily keep inside of those dimensions.

Tom:

I was thinking of that also. I just wasn't sure which glue to use and how best to apply it. If I want to, I can glue it, and just not bother continuing to try and finish "freeing" the ball. I can certainly get two ends of the neckerchief inside the cage, & I could "finish" it off by just carving the end links. I wanted my instructor to look at it first before I decided. The other question that had that I am also going to run by my instructor is whether or not I caused myself a problem by cutting the "end" of the basswood for the carving. Perhaps I unintentionally "weakened" the block by cutting the piece off of the end. Thanks for your tip.

Roy

[AlArchie]

Roy I checked back in my old Boy's Life Slide of the Month reprint, but that tooth was not in that one. There is another, a Wormy Apple that seems would be about the same size, except for the heighth. Slide was carved from a blank 1 7/8" x 1 7/8" x 1 5/8" The apple is not as long as your tooth so from looking at the tooth picture, I'd guess the length to be about 2 1/4" to 2 1/2" The hole should bew bored before you carve, and the nominal bore was 3/4" on almost all those old carved slides, although for a slide that size, I might cut that hole down to 5/8" to prevent the slide from slipping down on the neckerchief.

Most all slides can be carved from a 2" x 2" block....heighth depends on what you are carving.

I managed to get up a picture of that tooth slide project, and IF the center hole is 3/4" on the actual one, the picture showed it as 3/8" so doubling all the measurements on the picture, the width would be 2" the thickness 1 3/4+" and the heighth of the tooth would be 4". That's a pretty durn big slide.

Al

[pallin]

The first Scout neckerchief slide I carved was the bear eating a salmon (from Whittlin' Jim in Boy's Life). After that I developed my own designs which produced about 30 different slides. Most do not have circular holes for the neckerchief. They are pictured in my photo gallery. Phil

[rjw@watson-law.com]

Wow! Those are unbelievable. I must be doing something very wrong. I just don't see how you can carve the balls inside the cages without breaking the rails. I especially don't see how you can do the ball inside the ball. There must be something I am doing wrong. Unless I carve it substantially larger so that I will have more room to work my blade, I just don't feel that I can do this. I will ask my instructor if he has any advice / suggestions.

I am going to go with the tooth next. I am hoping that will be fairly easy. However, the next slide I think I would like to carve would be a knot. I have seen a couple of samples of a square knot, and given how poorly I have done so far, I should probably stick to that. However, I was also thinking about doing a bowline. I could put the loop on top and the knot on the bottom.

Great pictures. Thanks.

Roy

[brianrickman]

For me, having been carving only a couple months, carving out a hollow area without breaking anything is very difficult. I tried to make chain links and failed. I looked at a "ball in a cage" pattern and thought it would be more difficult then the chain. I have found carving animals and abstract shapes much easier.

[LMiller]

Check out this piece on a local legend if you want to see boy scout bolo ties...

YouTube - Bill Burch Bolo Tie

[rjw@watson-law.com]

Thank you for the video. I have just shared it with the rest of the adult leaders in my troop.

Roy