Soap Carving Wrapup
Last week, I finally led the den meeting where our Bears would learn about knife safety and do a little soap carving on their way to earning their “Whittling Chip”. The section on knife safety wasn’t all that interesting to them, but it was important overall. I’d made a larger foamboard knife to use as a demonstration tool for proper handling and care of a knife. You can see that to the left in the picture.
After we finished the “boring” part of the meeting, we moved into the kitchen table and then I showed the boys a few different kinds of real knives. Starting with a large lockback hunting knife really drew their attention in. I also showed them a different lockback and two pocket knives, one of which was the “official” Bear Cub Scout knife. I think they all really wanted that one, but it already belongs to my Bear cub.
I’d also made up sharpening “stones” for the boys by gluing a piece of 320 grit wet or dry sandpaper to a plywood block (see it on the right side in the picture). We then practiced a little sharpening using the wooden knives and the sharpening block. By using wet or dry sandpaper, it will also work well for sharpening real metal knives.
Then came time for the big event of the evening: soap carving. Knowing how much we would have to cover, I’d prepared two bars of Ivory soap for each boy, one with just the heart and sides outlined (middle left of the picture), and one where I had already relieved the background (middle right of the picture). This proved to be a great way of teaching them. The first block allowed them some time to get used to using the knives and then roughing out the shape. The second bar was good for them to learn shaping and finishing using more controlled cuts.
After snack time we also had a quiz to reinforce what they had learned and to prove they actually had been listening to me (at least a little). All the boys did well and will be presented their Whittling Chips at a Pack meeting before the annual camping trip.
All in all, I think all the boys had a great time. I’m very fortunate that we also had one adult for two boys so that they were all well supervised during the meeting. And by working in Ivory soap, the boys left the meeting smelling better than when they arrived :-)
Tuesday January 20, 2004 · Permalink