[Whittin John]

How has your success/failure at peach pit carving been?

I guess carving more and more away from "normal" whittling lumber and on to twigs, sticks, and branches as also led me to carving peach pits. It all started when my church had a peach festival and as something to do I carve about five peach pit monkeys I had seen it done years ago. I put a small "hook-n-eye" and put a ribbon through it to make a necklace of sorts. I had though that they could be used as prizes. Well the women who were bringing in the pies saw them and bought them up. So now I have to make a great many more for next year. It does provide a change. The pit is carves like wood once you get started and have you pocket knife very sharp. I read a little about peach pit carving and there are many things that can be made.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

When I worked in the jail a number of prisoners were doing peach pit carvings..usually a monkey holding a banana....been a long time, can't remember the other subjects...I tried it one time, seemed the pit was very hard to me? But that was before I was carving too..

[Tom H]

I read somewhere that people carve cherry pits too. I think it might have been dolls heads from the cherry pits. If I tried that I'd be loosin fingers. Tom H

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

there was a site on the web where a guy even carved a grain of rice!

heres a site http://www.shamey.com/pit/pit.htm

[Thomp]

My grandfather use to carve them, he used fresh pits,"He loved peaches" didn't seam to take him long to carve one either, all he used was a short broken blade on his case pocket knife,
seam to remember monkeys was his favorite, my uncle carved an indain head out of one and made a light switch pull out of it. all i remember seeing

maybe carving them wet is easier hi ho... ??
but you would definitely have to develop a way to hold them,

[Whittin John]

I am using a buck cadet 303. It is Buck's smaller stockman shape. The steel is very hard and the edge is second to none. I reshaped the spey blade to be a pen configuration. It really comes in handy for those tight cuts both with the peach pit and the cutting between the roosters legs when I am branch carving birch twigs. The sheep foot shape is also helpful with the feathers on the rooster, but for peach pit carving just the small pen blade and a nail in a piece of dowell to make the boring hole to shape the legs and arms of the money. These area have to be large enough so that you can grind up the seed inside the pit. Even though is smells like an almond, don't taste they are poison! I believe it is a form of cyanide, so no snacking on the contents while carving.

[Thomp]

Whittin John,

I got to admit it, i have tried to carve peach pits but gave up because of resulting injury.
maybe i didn't have the right knife or shape.
do you carve the pits green, or wet, or do you wait till their bone dry?

i have often thought of power grinding one out with a dremel but in the thought of my grandfather and tools he had, he carved them with a broke blade of case pocket knife.

I would love to see a tutorial on peach pit carving with a blade in the traditional way...

[Whittin John]

Thomp,
I just use a normal pen knife. The blade should be able to take some use and still be small enough to carve the monkey or what ever (basket, etc) all of which will be on the small size unless you found a giant peach pit. The knife as with all carving should be very sharp and the steel should be a high quality steel, it does not matter whether it is stainless or not just a good quality. My Buck Cadet has good steel as are all Buck products. Victorinox is also good, as with most brand name companies (e.g., Case, Queen, etc). The size of the handle could be a factor with the grip and what your hand can feel comfortable with. Some may view the Cadet as just right or a little too small, you have to decide what size knife your hand can feel best with. Control of the knife as with all whittling is very important. You need to be able to continue to count up to ten when you are done.
As for wet verus dry. The fresher the pit the more like a very hard wood when carving. Some times you even get a small slice. But dry also works, it is more of a scraping then.
One other "tool" I use is a awl of some sort to bore the starter hole between the arms, legs, and body of the monkey. Mine, I made by putting a nail in a dowel will the point out.
Maybe try to make a basket for the first try. Enjoy, google peach pit carving and see if you can find any helpful websites or articles.

[againstthegrain]

I checked out the pictures of the guy that carves the cherry pits, etc. He must have eyes like microscopes!

[MelNM]

Guilty Guilty, I'm one of nuts that have carved peach pits and cherry pits. When I did it I used mainly dockyard gouges and chisels. I made refrigerator magnets from them and gave them, I even had one that was a woodspirit, he came out good because peach bits make good natural beard.

On the cherry pits, I just made little baskets, needless those things are small and pretty much disappeared.
Mel