Thank you once again, Gene! I’m one of those who struggled with the hardness of of the dowels and really wanted to carve the little cardinals. I appreciate everything you do to help out the average, happy carvers - such as myself 😊.

Great alternative Gene! I will problaby stick to sticks and basswood going forward as the good carving dowels are rarer than Cardinal’s teeth

As you spoke I kept listening to the birds in the background to see if I would hear a cardinal. One guy kept trying to throw me off with it’s cardinal impersonation but it couldn’t fool me! Haha

The minute I watched Doug’s video. I had some 1 in.² Basswood and that’s what I’d used around it off three sides and left the pointed side for the week. They came out very well.

Can't wait to see watch the whole set of vids you make of this Gene. Thanks for sharing with us all.

I bought a cheap set of knives just to learn to sharpen them knowing that if I ruined them I would not be out much.  Fortunately it went well and I did learn to sharpen and not ruin blades lol!  But then, I got an OCC knife by Mike Shipley.  Wow.  What a knife.  I have never had it on a stone.  Just strop about every five minutes or so, and when you do it that often it never gets dull and really doesn't take that much stropping each time.  I think I got the 1 3/4 blade.  It has become by far my favorite knife.  You can easily do a complete carving with it.  But once I realized how good a good knife is, I did get a couple more from different makers to compare.  I use them occasionally and the small one for very small detail, but the OCC wins hands down for me.  This is not a paid announcement lol!  If you have any inkling that you want to learn to carve, get you a decent knife if you can afford it and pick up a scrap of wood.  Basswood is a dream to carve, but any wood that is not too hard will do.  Hard wood can work, but I would not start with it.  Nice video by the way!!

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So glad you did this, I wound up pitching the Dow pieces I cut…It was too hard!

Nice job

Very interesting I've always said you can use a block of wood I like how you've done this

What are the measurements for first 3 cuts? Thank you for video.

Nice tutorial Gene. I noticed there is a cardinal whistling outside while you're carving. How cool is that? Thank you for sharing your work.

I can hear the birds in the background while you are carving. It’s obvious they approve. Haha

Another great video Gene 💙

Gene,  thank you.  Following the video.  How far down do I start the first step?  thinning the wood.

Are used 1 in.² 4 inch long Basswood