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Classes customarily begins with a trip to a local horse pasture to select the raw materials using hand saws and hatchets. Most of the tools used are from Grandpa’s day, yet once mastered, make easy work of removing the most difficult bark. Students decide what they will make - a walking staff, bench, stool, coat rack, cribbage board or??? they learn how to sharpen carving tools.
Turn some cut off pieces of wood or green wood branch from a storm fallen tree into something useful but beautiful on a small wood lathe. Learn how to reveal the hidden beauty of wood using a skew or gouge to create sensual curves and tapers in a bowl, candle holder or stool leg. He covers sharpening your turning tools. Many projects take less than an hour. Bill provides basic and progressive courses on the increasingly popular small lathe.
Carving cottonwood bark is like carving butter and the tools are easy to master. Bill prefers to carve the birds & animals that lived in and under the cottonwood trees and has a library of books with photos to use as carving guides. Bring your own ideas. Watch as the gouge reveals what has been hidden. Now you need a bodger’s bench to pursue your interest in bark carving or diamond willow ! Making a bench entails the use of power tools such as the circular saws, jig saws, drills, screw guns, router, belt and finishing sander. Your bench is custom fitted to your body size. Learn how to do pierced cuts, make tapers for wedges, make removable legs and finish your bench. Disassembly of Bill's version takes about two minutes for apartment storage or transporting. The bodger’s bench has been used for millenniums and is still used by craftsmen and carvers the world over. Accommodations and meals are provided in the 4200 sq ft bed & breakfast located 2 hours SE of Edmonton, AB
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