Carving With U In Mind History
Lynn and Sandy originally moved to Everett from California in 2000. In 2003 they found a home on Puget Sound and moved to Camano Island.
Lynn has been interested in Carving every since he was in High School (a long time ago) but really got serious about it when he retired in 2000. Lynn's first major project was a Carousel Rocking Horse. Sandy pushed him into finishing it by entering it in the Santa Rosa County Fair. Lynn won Best of Show. An idea for a Giraffe had been in his mind for many years. He started carving it in California but had to box him up with loving care and move him to Everett, Wa. where he was finally finished and painted by Sandy. His name is Mr. Attitude and this is who you see on our Website.
Lynn thought a good way to meet people, since we were both new to Washington, would be to find a Carving Club. We saw an ad in the paper for a Chain Saw Event to be held in Sedro Wooley. There we found the Quilceda Carving Club. Through them, we found a list of places where Lynn could carve and meet new friends. Lynn was carving 4 nites a week and Sandy decided if she was ever going to see him, she would need to learn to carve too. Sandy's background was Decorative Painting. Lynn was more than willing to turn all the painting of his projects over to her. In 2001 we joined the Quilceda Carvers and have been very involved with the them every since.
Lynn began teaching at Senior Centers located in Lake Forest, Bothell and on our Island in 2003. Lynn also volunteered to teach classes at several carving rendezvous: Quilceda Carver’s Spit-N-Whittle, Lincoln City's Art Show, Spokane, Missoula, and Glacier National Park in Montana. He also does short classes at carving shows and in his shop.
While teaching he had to come up with ideas for these classes and provide cut outs for the students. There were always some cutouts left over, so we started a small homebased business and sold them at Carving Events. So "Carving with U In Mind" came to be.
We travel all over the Northwest going to various shows and events and have met a lot of really great people.
Lynn’s personal goal is to become a Master Carver, which he has been at by taking classes to broaden his carving knowledge. He has taken classes from Joe Leonard, who carved the Carousel Horses for France Disney. Jerry Shimchuck, a world class carver, got him started on Birds, Ducks,Owls and Tropical Fish. He has also taken from Bob Guge, a renowned Bird Carver and Josh Guge and up and coming Fish Carver, boh World Class Winners. He is trying very hard to expand his horizons by learning several techniques in order to come up with his own.
How Port-A-Strop Came to Be
Lynn was taking his sharpening system with him every week to sharpen tools for his students. This sharpening system was bulky, hard to carry around and intimidated his students. They would not use it to sharpen their own tools. This meant Lynn spent half of his time sharpening tools instead of teaching. He looked all around for a portable system he could carry with him but was unable to find one so he decided to build one.
Port-A-Strop has gone through many changes in its short life but the main idea has remained constant. It is Portable, Rechargeable, and weighs less than 7-1/2lbs. It is slow enough that it does not get the metal too hot, and it has built in safety features. Women especially are comfortable with it as it is very user friendly. We introduced it at the Kitsap Show in Washington in 2003. It has been accepted very well by everyone. Now Lynn’s students sharpen their own tools. We took it with us to the Glacier Rendezvous, which is where we think it is really worth its weight in gold, as it is perfect for the RV owners that are Carvers because of its portability. When you go to a Rendezvous, Carve In with friends, Carve in the Park or a Class or wherever there is no power, it is perfect. You just charge it up before you leave and it is good to go for several hours of sharpening. What a wonderful concept, sharp tools. You will be the envy of your group.
The newest version is AC/DC so now you can use it as much as you want in your shop or where you do have power or charge it up and take it with you wherever you want to carve. You can also use it to sharpen other things like knives or fish hooks.
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