WOOD CARVINGS:

My grandfather, James B. Wiebe Sr., started teaching me how to carve when I was 6 years old. He was the son of a German watch case engraver and was an old-world craftsman committed to doing things the right way or not at all.

He gave me my first pocket knife when I was in the 4th grade. It was a handmade knife from Germany. When he died in 1984, I was given some of his carving tools and I had some knives he made for me. I used these tools to make some of the following carvings.

Here is an original design I did of a bottle nose dolphin with a calf carved from a single piece of Maine basswood from my grandfather's stock of carving wood. It measures about 3 inches long from nose to tail.


















This is an Ibex from one of my Granfather's patterns.

He did one of these Ibex carvings and it sat on a grain scoop sconce in my grandparent's house on Grove Street in Bayhead, New Jersey, from the early 1970's, until my Grandmother moved to New Hampshire with my Uncle Bill and Aunt Margie in the mid-1980's.

My grandfather did many carvings like this. I don't have any of his original work, but I do have several patterns he did his carvings from and hope to add more of these designs to my collection.

This carving is about 4 inches tall x 2-1/2 inches long x 1 inch wide and is made from my Grandfather's Maine basswood.

The design of mine below is of a Camasaurus, a large vegetarian sauropod. It is made from my granfather's Maine basswood and measures about 5 inches tall x 12 inches long x 2-1/2 inches thick.

The final item in today's post is of a male beagle.

I had a beagle named Jake when I was a teenager. He was a great rabbit hunting dog. I spent many cool Fall days hunting with him and we got a lot of rabbits from "the little woods" next to our farm in New Jersey where I grew up. Thanks to Charlie Boynton for letting us hunt there.

Jake inspired this design. It measures about 6 inches tall x 7-1/2 inches long x 1-3/4 inches wide.