And Her Outstretched Arms: Woodworking With Respect

"You’re working with a natural product, a tree; you can see natural pictures in the wood that are just crying to be let out. It’s a way to capture a spirit, a feeling, in a piece of wood. A wooden sheath keeps a blade sharp for a long time, whereas if you put a sword in a leather sheath, it will get dull hanging on the wall." -Daniel, Katwood Farm, Virginia

Wood is the flesh of a once-living tree, and like all living things, it was unique. Unlike stone or glass or sand or clay, which have greater although varying levels of alterability, each piece of wood will have its own grain and knots and makeup and will only be suitable for making certain things. As a woodcarver once told me, the trick is not to grab a piece of wood and force it to be a bowl or spoon or some item. It is to find the piece of wood that already has that bowl or spoon in it, and cut away anything that is not that thing. This is especially true of three-dimensional curving wooden objects, which must take advantage of curving grain and never cut across the grain of the wood. Carvers and woodworkers who are anywhere near forests learn to be on the lookout for interesting trees and limbs and twigs that already have the right shape and grain to make something. This requires not only keen senses, but a certain rapport with the spirits of the forest. If you ask them to send you the right pieces to make something, and then leave them a small offering (preferably edible), they will generally drop it right in front of you when you least expect it.

Once you've found a piece of wood that is the right shape, don't just carve one piece from it. Cut it in two, the long way, and make two identical pieces. You do this because the center of the limb is the weakest point, and handles that curve along it often break. By limiting the weak center wood to the top or bottom or edge of each spoon, you make them stronger.

The best way to learn woodcarving is to practice on wild wood from your own property, or a neighbor's. Yes, you'll mess up a few, but in the end you will end up creating something of lasting value. Something about wood calls to us as humans; it is the Green Man's flesh that he has given us to honor his spirit with, whether it be burning it for our survival, making our homes out of it, or whittling it into something beautiful or useful or both.