wittling

[briantshore]

I am a bear den leader this year. We will be doing the requirments for the wittling chip. I will have the practice doing soap carvings. Does anyone know a place on the web that I can print pictures of items to carve for this level of boy?

[anarchist]

Why web site? are the boys lacking imagination? I don't think so...soap is cheap! let them decide what they want to carve...and if you really expect Michaelanglo... they better have really sharp knives...

start by finding a really good deal on Ivory soap (it carves nice). If you let the boys bring in what ever (mom usually sends what she has in the pantry or goes and buys really wierd soap that carves like rock. Get several bars for each boy so you can do it for part of two or three meetings. If they really need help suggest easy stuff...pictures can oft times lead to unrealistice expectations... Then make sure they have real knives that are sharp...too often they show up with dollar store folding knives that could hardly cut warm butter...I collected the knives from the bulk of my boys ( some kids already had good sharp knives)and a couple of dads sat down with me and we put real edges on the knives...carving is so much easier and safer with a good tool.

 

Let them carve simple shapes a boat, canoe, an out line of a dog, or a horses head, a small house, dare I say a gun or a knife (which is exactly what five of my 9 bears did carve)...one even told us of a TV show he saw where the good guy carved a gun out of soap (blacked with ashes) to get out of a jamb...to go along with his carving...One boy tried to do a face and was very disappointed with the outcome...one of my more creative imps carved his soap into... "a stick"...so he would have something to whittle on when he got his card! The best was a fish... the kid did a pretty good job...but he had been using a pocket knife for a while (farm raised kid)before cubs...don't make it work and don't make the carving itself the point of the exercise...SAFE KNIFE handling and carving technique are the goal here not the finished project. I like to sit with the boys in small groups (each with a couple of adults...to watch and offer technique suggestions...

 

Too often, this is treated as a one evening activity and they 1). never learn to use a knife properly and 2) never get to understand the pleasure of whittling...back in the dark ages we whittled several simple wood projects after the saftey class and soap carving lesson...(moms/dads had more time to sit down with us while we piled shavings on the front steps, I guess) before we got our card... (and my favorite was a wooden eagle-handle knife/letter opener that my mother used for a long time...'course the eagle head probably looked more like a buzzard with a broken nose...)Have fun with it and try to make it a skill they use... not just a pass to carry a pocket knife!

 

anarchist

[Fuzzy Bear]

My Mother was the Assistant Den Leader in October 1959 when I was a Bear Cub. She and the Den Leader bought large bars of Ivory soap for each of us. I couldn't believe my eyes that they were going to give us knives and our own bars of soap! We laid down news papers on the kitchen table and I went at it without a plan or an idea. My first thought was to carve an elephant. I found that the delicate carving of a trunk and/or legs took more skill than I was able to muster at that age. I wound up with several broken blobs but my imagination created a pretty good alternative which I can't recall right now. It wasn't the actual carving that gave me the bright idea that I could carve but I vividly recall my start. Since then, I have gone on to carve a hiking boot out of a piece of cedar that later split but I glued it together and still use it as a Neckerchief slide. I suppose I am proud of my accomplishment but I did discover that carving is a skill, one that takes more than one bar of soap for some of us.

FB

[madkins007]

Briantshore-

 

This is just my own take on the various crafts in Cubbing, so take this for what it is worth.

 

It is easy for us to remove the skills and creativity aspects of crafts by making them too much a 'follow THESE steps' process.

 

When we use crafts in Cubs, we really ought to have a purpose in it- teaching a new skill, creating something with an immediate purpose (gift item or prop for a skit, etc.), putting other lessons into practice, etc.

 

Whenever possible with a craft item, we should try to select options that give the Cubs a lot of control, input, choices, decisions, and/or ownership. They ought to be able to make it THEIRS instead of slavishly reproducing the kit-maker's ideal.

 

Soap carving can do all of this- knife use, creative thinking, planning, and more. You could assign the sketch as a homework assignment and work with the kids to tune their sketches for better outcomes, or have enough soap on hand to let them screw up on one or two of them before they start their 'good' piece.

 

HOWEVER, I know some leaders don't have the quirk that lets this philosophy work. I've worked with great leaders that could seemingly do anything... but some kinds of crafts.

 

If you are the kinda person that just needs a bit more info to make this work, you can find ideas at places like:

 

http://www.ivory.com/fun.htm

 

http://www.hitentertainment.com/artattack/aztecsoapcarving.html

 

http://mte.anacortes.k12.wa.us/art/a6th1.htm

 

http://library.thinkquest.org/J002459F/sphinx.htm

 

 

Simple wood carving patterns work well, too..

http://www.woodcarvers.org/patterns.htm

 

http://www.woodcarvingstore.com/CarvingBlanksandCut-Outs/WhillockBlanks.asp