woodcarving class

K and his dad using a froe and mallet to split cedar

David, my father-in-law, gave K and I a woodcarving class this weekend. He started off by introducing us to the tools we'd be using--these were all old-fashioned handtools. Some of the tools have been in David's family for 130 years or more. These bear the initials NM for Nathaniel Morgan, David's great-great-grandfather, who used the tools to make furniture in the 1880s. Others belonged to David's grandfather, Homer Morgan, who was a tobacco farmer and ran a saw mill. 

Using the drawknife



We began with a cedar fencepost and the goal of making a little cedar cross. David recently taught a woodcarving class at his church, so the first step of sawing the cedar was already done for us. We skipped ahead to using a froe and mallet to split the wood, then used a brace with an auger bit to make a hole for the wood to intersect. Next was one of my favorite parts. We used a drawknife to square up the wood and shave it down to the right size. Then we used a miter saw, miter box, plane, rasp, eggbeater drill, and a mythbuster, which is a tool that David invented to create round pegs from square pieces of wood. (In case you're wondering, I aced the tool quiz at the end of the class.)

Using a rasp to smooth the edges

Two hours went by so quickly as David demonstrated each step and then K and I took our turns. My mother-in-law, Phyllis, snapped photos of the whole process.

Cedar crosses

Soon we had handmade, cedar crosses of our own (they smell so good!). And the best part? Coming up with ideas for the next project...

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Thanks for sharing your talents with us, David. And thanks Phyllis for keeping us company and taking great photos.