Profile: In Pursuit Of Perfection

Dave Wilkins walks guest editor Peter Benson through his journey from stick head making to spoon design

I first met Dave when he joined my woodcarving evening class in 2003. He was already a very skilled walking stick maker and obviously felt that he didn’t have a great deal to learn about woodcarving. We soon put him right on that front, a lesson experienced by all the rest of us!

He has since become a good friend of mine and is always very keen to join any available carving sessions. As a result, he is accomplished in many aspects of carving. He is prolific in his carving of Christmas figures, that are always in demand, and still adds his carved heads to the sticks he makes. More recently he has extended his interest in green woodworking with some wonderful, and useful, spoon designs. What sets him apart from some of the other carvers I have met is his attention to detail and a desire to ‘get it right’. This becomes obvious if you look into his toolbox.

Tell us how you became a carver

I have been a hobby stickmaker since the early 1990s and retired from the police service in 2002. At that particular time I had dabbled as a carver when making the handles for walking sticks, but I was clearly in desperate need of some tuition/guidance. I joined an evening class where the tutors were Peter Benson and Jonathan Fearnhead, both exceptional tutors and carvers. I found I was on a steep learning curve, and I still am. They both generated a sense that, regardless of what one was carving, achieving the finished article was within one’s capabilities.

Why do you carve and what do you get out of it?

I carve for pleasure, and because I find I relax and therefore get satisfaction, especially when a carving is finished. I love doing the research that has to be undertaken so the subject’s lifestyle, movement and mannerisms can, where possible, be part of the finished carving. If I don’t include this then I find that the carving isn’t what I would call ‘real’, or ‘alive’. This is particularly so with people, animals, birds and characters where the slight turn of the head, or a wrinkle or fold on clothing, will make all the difference.

Is there something you have always wanted to carve but haven’t yet done so?

My dad was a hobby carver, he always carved in oak and his style speciality was relief carving. He had carved a pirate galleon ship that had pride of place in the best room in our house. That carving is still within our family, and my older sister has it. I would love to carve something similar, but have just not got round to it quite yet. You could say it is in the pre-plan stage at the moment.

If you could improve one aspect of your carving what would it be?

I would really love to be able to carve using the fewest cuts possible – one really exact and precise cut as opposed to three or four tentative ones. That comes down to using the right chisel for the right effective finish.

What are your favourite carving woods?

The hardwoods I tend to carve are:

• Lime
• Walnut
• Jelutong

The green woods are:

• Silver birch
• Cherry
• And any other fruit wood

Did the lockdowns affect you, your work and your carving?

The 23 March 2020 lockdown (yes, that was three years ago), was a major turning point in all our lives. The immediate ceasing of gatherings and contact with others meant we would all struggle, some a lot more than others. The restrictions upon our freedom created a vacuum that needed to be filled or replaced, so I determined that if particular people came to mind, I would phone them up, ask how they were, and keep up the contact, as well as trying to encourage them where possible. I decided also to spend time re-reading old copies of Woodcarving and pay special attention to the articles I had initially skipped over. That’s where I noticed the technical articles by Nick Westermann about sharpening knives, gouges and chisels.

He is a world-respected specialist green wood toolmaker. I was determined to pay serious attention to what he was writing about and try to understand what his articles were saying. This led me to spoon carving, a topic that I didn’t know much about at all, and from there to Nick’s videos on YouTube, where there were loads more spoon carving topics. That introduced me to crank angles and bowl styles. I found that spoon carving is not only satisfying, it broadened my carving scope, I also picked up ‘goody points’ with my wife by carving cooking spoons. I found you can carve patterns on the spoon handle, called kolrosing, where the wood is incised and a powder such as cinnamon rubbed into the incision. The spoon is then oiled, and the handle ‘burnished’ to seal in the pattern.

How would you encourage people to start carving?

I am sure that, generally speaking, people have a reluctance and see as difficult, and beyond their capabilities, anything that is artistic. Whittling, I feel, is a way to open the door to carving – that is, provided there is a useful product at the end. The key is making something that is useful, and the realisation that anything is possible provided they have the right tuition. We all know somebody who knows somebody who carves or works with wood, and that’s where it starts, making contact, asking questions, doing research. The answer is out there, we need to keep looking, and not give up, and if we start, we just need to keep going.

Coming soon from Peter Benson

Seasoned woodcarver Peter Benson introduces the basics of whittling with safety tips, essential tools, and clear, progressive projects. With step-by-step guidance, readers build skills as they carve a dolphin, polar bear, kingfisher and more.

Release dates: UK 06/2025 | US 10/2025