the.com/whittling
meditation for people who'd rather hold a knife than a thought
means The act of slowly carving or shaving thin slices off a piece of wood with a knife, usually to shape it or simply to pass the time.
from From the Old English 'thwitan,' meaning 'to cut or pare,' which gave us the noun 'whittle' for a knife — a butcher's blade was once literally a 'whittle.' To 'whittle' first meant to cut with such a knife, and over time the word also drifted into the figurative 'whittle down,' as if you could shave a problem the way you shave a stick.
- oldest craft
- predates pottery and metalworking by millennia
- go big
- world's tallest totem pole tops 170 feet
- trench art
- soldiers whittled to survive WWI boredom
- one rule
- always cut away from your body
- basswood favorite
- soft, grainless, forgives every beginner's mistake
chip carving — scandinavian woodcarving tradition using knife to cut geometric patterns into flat wood surfaces, dating back centuries
spoon carving — welsh love spoons hand-carved from single piece of wood, traditionally given as courtship gifts in wales since 17th century
walking stick carving — appalachian folk art tradition in kentucky and tennessee where artisans carve elaborate handles and decorative details into wooden sticks