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.
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.