I just spent 1.5 hours whittling wood, and I'm SOOOOOO exhausted!!!

[SmileyBoy]

My dumbass hippie (no offence:)) environmental design professor gave us an assignment to whittle a block of basswood (using ONLY a pocket knife) into a utencil of some sort. It's due in a few weeks.

The thing is that I have NEVER EVER whittled wood in my life, and I kind of procrastinated the past week from doing it, because I was afraid that it would be really hard to do, and that I'd be working on it for hours on end, and still wouldn't be able to get it done. And guess what??? IT IS. It's REALLY hard. The thing is I have delicate artists hands. These hands of mine were meant to draw, not to whittle wood.

But at least I got around 10 percent of the work done. I'll resume this Monday. I have stuff in other classes I need to take care of.

[Skittles]

1. so........are ya sportin' a nice piece of wood there?

NICE. :7

[SmileyBoy]

2. Yeah. You wanna know how long it is???

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[Skittles]

11. well, you ARE a Democrat

need I know more ??? :thumbsup:

[ZenLefty]

3. I hope you're not making salad tongs, then.

That would be really hard. Stick with a spoon or something. :D

[SmileyBoy]

4. I've decided to make a double-ended chili spoon.

I've got that durn wood in my hand right now!!!:D

[junker]

5. couple of tips. 1) take aspirin BEFORE you stress the hands. 2)

whittling is a sharp-knife activity. So keep a whetstone handy and keep the blade sharp, then you CUT the wood on or against the grain as opposed to trying to use the knife blade as a chisel...make sense,
cut the cut, then clear the wood, cut the cut, then clear the wood.....

[SmileyBoy]

8. I actually got a bad-ass blister on my thumb as a result.

The butt of the knife (not the sharp part) was digging into my thumb. I kept the knife sharp, tho. I have a pocket whetstone handy. I'm gonna put a glove on my right hand for next time.

[dolo amber]

6. I hope it wasn't YOUR wood

Ouch. x(

[DS1]

7. I whittle wood and seem to end up holding more than when I started

:shrug:

[SmileyBoy]

9. LOL!!!

*chuckle*

[Van Helsing]

10. You spent 1.5 hours "whittling wood," eh?

;)

I usually call it something else and it only takes me 3-5 minutes. :evilgrin:

[cally]

12. Well, I had to do something similar in Jr. high

and I cheated. I got my dad to use an electric saw to rough out the design and then I finished it by whittling. Worked fine. Since that time, I have whittled when camping and backpacking. I like it when I sit around a campfire and have endless time. Good luck.