wooden pliers made with 10 cuts of a pocket knife

Thanks Paul...it seems to be a day of memories for me...

I have an "extra crease" in my left thumb from learning to make these as a kid...Its not a matter of if but when a young Artisan will gash themselves...Yet it is a joy to be "baptized by blood and fire," for our craft...

Thanks again...

chuckle. Jay, my seventh birthday Dad gave me a pocket knife - and instructions not to do anything with it until he got home from work to start teaching me to whittle.
To the best of my recollection, that day was the first time I ever consciously disobeyed an instruction from my parents. As soon as I got home from school I went into the basement with a stick, opened up that little boy scout folder, and promptly took the tip of my left index finger *almost* right off. Scar still a visible reminder, more than fifty years later.

That is cool!

That is epic!

That totally blew my mind, I have never seen that kind of woodworking done. As a female we generally aren't taught to whittle growing up, but I had a love of it and a fairly understanding mother. She gave me all kinds of pocket knives through out the years. Whenever my step dad found them he would take them away from me, (it was okay for my brother who was only a year older than me to have knives, but it wasn't okay for me to have them in his book.) my mom would always find them and give them back to me. Who knows where I might have been woodworking wise if my step dad had realized that I actually had a love of wood and carving, (as apposed to my brother's desire to just be cool and play with sharp objects) and hadn't basically tried to teach me that "GIRLS" aren't supposed to play with knives, and that wood carving and whittling were for boys and men only. Thanks so much for sharing this video, it amazed the heck out of me when he split that piece of wood into a pair of working pliers. I would so love to find out where I can get a whittling knife like the one he was using.

Katrin, The store that hosted that video has a great selection of wood carving knives. I have one of their stores just a few miles from my house and it is really fun to just walk in there and look at all the amazing tools they have. But you can also order from them online! http://www.woodcraft.com/category/HT115-03/carving-knives.aspx?pagesize=100

Tom OHern wrote:Katrin, The store that hosted that video has a great selection of wood carving knives. I have one of their stores just a few miles from my house and it is really fun to just walk in there and look at all the amazing tools they have. But you can also order from them online! http://www.woodcraft.com/category/HT115-03/carving-knives.aspx?pagesize=100

Awesome! Thanks so much for the link!

Hey thats in my neck of the woods! In fact I worked in Dover up until earlier this year. That woodworking place is about all its got left as far as attraction goes. Still some good salt of the earth folks down there though. What an amazing feat of knowledge and skill.