BIG ED Gets a New Hat
 I finally remembered to bring in the black cowboy hat I bought at a garage sale for BIG ED. As soon as I saw it at the sale I knew I wanted to see it on him. He spends the winters down in Arizona and the place is infested with cowboys…but mostly snowbird cowboys. He’ll fit in better now, even if the hat doesn’t quite fit.

              BIG ED was working on a cowboy snowman and something else that is still fairly unrecognizable. It’s a roughout of something. Care to take a guess?
     I’ll go first…Siamese trolls sharing 2 arms and three legs.You can email me your guess and a winner will be chosen.….ED is sworn to secrecy for now.
 Ed tried on the black hat…Someone said only bad guys wore blackhats but Ed said that Gene Autry wore one…Ed ought to know, they went to high school together.
  
 Don the Cop started working with his wood burning outfit a few weeks ago. Today he brought in three framed projects..Very nice work Don.
      Bob from Whitestone came in around 10am…He often comes in a little later than many of the others, but then he is driving in all the way from Whitestone..He was basking in the glow of being singled out to be the assistant to the helper of one of the officers of the New Hyde Park carving club… What I think really happened was that he got up from the meeting to go to the restroom..When he returned he was elected…he’s lucky they didn’t make him the president.  Bob said that he had great plans to raise the treasury by a lot…All he had to do was recruit 60 more members. Good luck Bob!

    Eli came in carrying a birthday cake. His. He said he was eighty years old and if he’s telling the truth he is looking very well indeed…”Beauty is on the outside..Don’t ask about the inside.” Said Eli.
 I said that I wish I was eighty….Someone asked why I would wish to be  older than I was…I said “ I would look pretty good for an eighty year old.” Many of us had some birthday cake …I thought it was excellent…all three slices.
  
 Tom said..”Oy…Three pieces he had already…Oy.”
 Gene sometimes comes to the Thursday sessions. He’s more active with the New Hyde Park Club..and he writes a monthly newsletter for them. He was carving a dog and having trouble ..Most of it with the hind legs..”I cut off too much wood..His legs are supposed to stick out more.”
 He took out some “wonder wood fixer”.It’s a two part mix and you stick it onto the part that you need more of because you cut off too much..like Gene did.
  We’ll see how that works out

     . Everybody has problems…I have plenty, to be sure. I was having trouble with the eyes again..For what seemed like the  eightieth time, Ed sliced off the old eyes and showed me how to do eyes…..again. This time I think I paid attention…All I have to do is remember what he did..
 Last week I brought in a little statue I found at a garage sale..It has a lot of detail but the wood seemed very hard, We weren’t even sure it was wood..Maybe plastic? Ed would know…
 Ed held it..felt the weight..tapped it on the desk….looked at the grain….posed thoughtfully ..and then said,,”It’s wood.” Hooray,,It was declared to be  wood by Ed…and what Ed says at the meetings is golden...And so it shall be written..and so it shall be done…
    ”It’s wood!”

 I went back to working on my wolf head walking stick /cane top.I had wood burned in some hair and then added some deeper grooves to simulate thicker hair

 …     The eyes look ok…so I’m happy.
 And so the sessions go..Always fun..always interesting and always worth writing about…

Carvers are Happier People

       
 I look forward to the Thursday carving sessions with the Panama Carvers (AKA The Long Island Wood Carvers Association). I pack my tools, my project of the day and my camera in a shopping bag and drive to the Senior Center in Merrick…

 As you enter the room, on the far left, is a smiling woman who always says ”good morning”. That’s the last nice thing you hear until you get to the smaller room with the carvers settling into their work.There is an intent group of four ladies playing Ma Jong…They rarely look up.”One bam—two crack- North” I have no idea what’s going on, but they look happy, they just don’t look up.

 And then we have the poker players who never look happy.
 ”How could you bet like that? It’s not a good bet.”
 “It’s my bet..That’s what I bet.”
 “You shouldn’t bet like that. It’s not good poker.”
 “Look at the money? Who knows from playing? You?”
  

    The Panama  Carvers are always happy…That’s BIG ED, Howie and Ed.  (Second Picture)
Howie has been working on his beautiful walking stick.He just added a wood spirit wearing a crown…It’s good to be the King.(Picture's 3 and 4)

Cutting Board Basics: Wood Vs. Plastic By Danilo Alfaro

Wondering about the best kind of cutting board to use to help avoid a food-related illness? Here's all the info you need.

Cutting Board Basics: Wood Vs. Plastic

Nonporous surfaces like plastic or glass are easier to clean than wood and thus better in terms of food safety. Wood is naturally porous, and those tiny fissures and grooves in wooden cutting boards can harbor bacteria. Which is why cutting boards made of wood aren't allowed in commercial kitchens. That being the case, why use them at home?

As for glass cutting boards,

“Spruce Girls”

Wooden bathing suits, supposed to make swimming a lot easier. Haquian, Washington, USA, 1929

 

 “Spruce Girls” 

on beach wearing spruce wood veneer bathing suits during “Wood Week” to promote products of the Gray Harbor lumber industry, Hoquiam, Washington”

Wooden swimsuits. Look your best on the beach with these wooden bathing costumes in Haquin, Washington, 1929. The contraptions, which do not look comfortable, were made to make swimming easier. Luckily the trend did not catch on.

 

 

 

A group of unknown bathing beauties. Date and photographer unknown.

Feather Thing

       Eagle Head Feather Thing

       I really didn’t know what else to call it.I stumbled across it on the internet and I thought it looked interesting and not particularly difficult or time consuming.

Theirs

       I had a thin sheet of basswood, a bandsaw, the necessary wood carving knives and v tools plus the paint. I even had a wood burning tool.

       So I made one..but I didn’t like how the wood burning turned out..So I made another..and another and even another..

Mine

       So now they’re getting better…but what are they and what does one do with these Eagle Head Feather Things?

       Anyway, they’re fun to make and pretty easy too.The hard part is figuring out what they are and what to do with them…I guess you can always write about them……I guess...until next time, Bill Russo >)))'>

      

The Panama Carvers

The Panama Carvers Gather Today 7-7-16

       First, Bob from Whitestone wore one…and today Harvey came in with one…and I heard others asking where they could get one. I heard “Dollar Tree” so guess what? I now have a Panama hat and I also bought an extra one. Someone is sure to want a Panama Carving Hat…and they’re guaranteed to be offered for sale in the Carving Illustrated Magazine and on line. Everything can be bought on line.

                    

       I sat next to Tom the peach pit carver. I took out my next project. I plan to  make something like this for my granddaughter Lauren. She’s a dancer.. I have the old shoes…It’s a start.

                    

After almost two hours of carving under the watchful eye of Ed

Thursday's Carving

The Harriette Carter Lamp Day

by Bill Russo

 

      I had just finished two carvings..The Boy Scout and High Noon, I painted them and waxed them and I polished them too. I carried them over to the table where Ed and Dan were working away on something or other..

      “These are coming along nicely,” said Ed

      “Yeah..They’re going to be beautiful when you’re done”, said Dan.

      “They are done”, I said.

      “Oh” said Ed..

      “Oh” said Dan.

      “Bastards” I thought…and then I sat down and had a good laugh along with a few guys who heard the exchange..Mel, in particular, enjoyed it.

      And that’s one of the things to expect when you are showing your work to really, really good carvers…They’re honest…. Still, Things are improving with each piece…I think.

      Just then

Know Your Sawdust and Woodchips...

Read all about it: click here

Brooklyn's Biggest Tree Gets a Second Life

When a massive European Elm tree in Prospect Park died in late 2015, the NYC Parks Department asked RE-CO BKLYN to mill it into lumber and make furniture from it.  Most of NYC’s felled trees get chipped and sent to a landfill that is often hundreds of miles away. Turning this material into lumber and furniture cuts down on the environmental burden of disposal and stimulates the local economy.

 The century and a half old tree was located near a footpath at the intersection of Coney Island and Caton Ave. It was planted circa 1870, shortly after construction on the park began. Over the course of the tree’s life it grew beyond 7 feet in diameter and more than 75 feet in height.
 The rest of the story:  CLICK HERE

My Boy Scout!