Roosevelt Elk Calves Enjoy a day of Carving

The fickle weather of Fall was in full swing on the morning of the Roosevelt Elk Calves first outing. Scattered showers with intermittent sun breaks cycled on and off as we prepared for the outing. This season marks a huge step forward for the Roosevelt Elk Calves as we are introducing the art of carving. More so than many of our other skills the art of carving is one that we approach slowly and with a great amount of commitment and respect. Over the past few seasons the Roosevelt Elk Calves have proved themselves as a focused and ever maturing group that is ready for this challenge.

We walked into the forest via a lower path that is not often frequented by mountain bikers or dog walkers. We kept an eye out for a spot that would be both a suitable place for an opening meeting and a nice spot to carve. After a while of hiking we found such a spot and set up our base camp for the day. We had observed a downed bigleaf maple on the hike in and decided it would be the perfect tree to harvest from for our carving wood. Big leaf maple is a hard wood, but also one that has a smooth consistent grain for practicing carving. We quickly sawed and split enough wood for everyone to work with.

During our opening circle Tim and I made it very clear that the boys wood not only have to demonstrate focus and skill individual when working with knives, but also as a group. We reviewed blood circlesand talked about some basic safety around carving (not carving told yourself, having a comfortable spot to sit, not cutting toward other body parts, etc). After setting the tone for the day we distributed the carving wood and told the Roosevelt Elk Calves that our first project would be to make chopsticks. Chopsticks are a good first project because they can be completed in a day, require you to carve a tapering cylinder, and you must carve two things that are close to identical. With the task clear the boys started carving.

All the boys showed great care with the knives, besides a few small things we did not have to remind them of any safety issues. As the boys carved their chopsticks their skills grew; They made smaller more precise cuts and over all showed an immense amount of patience. We had a solid hour and a half of carving before anyone wanted to anything else. At this point we took a lunch break and all admired eachothers carving. After this many of the boys had focused enough for the day and decided to organize a game ofSpiders Web and a handful of boys decided to keep working on their carving. For the remainder of the outing the boys that were carving showed total focus and dedication while the others had an excellent game of Spiders Web.  

During our closing circle many of the boys shared really profound and insightful lessons they felt carving had taught them. Everything from patience to confronting challenges that seem really big in life. The Roosevelt Elk Calves not only excelled at the hard skill of carving, but also were able to apply this to the bigger picture and context of their lives. Thank you Roosevelt Elk Calves for your focus and  hard work on our outing! Parents, please encourage your boys to carve at home if you have the space and feel comfortable letting them. Carving is a skill that can take a lifetime to perfect and these boys are well on their way. Also if you still need to get a knife for your explorer or have other carving related questions please contact me or visit our knife skills page. Also be sure to look at our photo gallery for more pictures.