As a youth, around seven, I started carving what in those days were known as solid models, that would become P 51 Mustangs, Thunderbolts, P 38, Black Widow and many other WWII fighters and bombers.  Even at that young age I was very pro American and wouldn't make an enemy plane and they were available. They were not like the ones today that are made of plastic and snap together, you had to carve them from blocks of balsa wood, very soft but you still had to shape it, paint it to make it look like one . The young boys or girls of today are really cheated. The many happy hours I spent when the weather was too bad to go out, now days it's in front of the tube, no skills learned there. From the model planes it was on to kneckerchief slides in the Scouts, got some in Europe some where, as I traded them for patches at the World Jamboree at Valley Forge in the late 40's.

Then came the sports,girls and college and it all laid dormant for many years. Went to work for the Veterans Adm. in Lexington, Ky. in 60 and as I neared retirement I knew I need to find something to occupy my time, I don't fish much. So in the early 80's I started thinking seriously about finding something as I was slated to retire in 90, it took me a year to find a good book on carving, today there are hundreds available. I started doing ducks and songbirds. I soon moved away from them because there are so many people doing them. I have gravitated more to animals and some of the what I term novility items, such as reproducing very realistic feathers, that are so thin that you can almost read a newspaper through them before they are painted, carving 10/15 different butterflies on basswood eggs the size of octrich egg.

The skill that were learned as a youth never leave, they are just like riding a bike they get a little bit wobbly but with some practice the become quit sharp (no pun intented).

Yes with all those years of experence ( 63 )I still cut myself once in a while, there is ALWAYS a bandaid or two close buy, just in case.