Master
craftsman, artisan, John Sutton
talks wood carving
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[October 22, 2015]
LINCOLN - The
Logan County Genealogical and
Historical Society welcomed wood
carver John Sutton to their October
monthly meeting Monday. Sutton is
nationally known for his artistry
with a knife and a gouge, creating
intricate wood carvings that can be
whimsical or serious.
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Sutton
began carving as a Cub Scout where
he learned the proper way to use a
knife on wood. It was not just
creating a sharp point on a stick
with a pocket knife, but rather
drawing the knife against the wood
in order to control how the wood can
be shaped. He has been at it since,
and his works of art have run the
gamut from almost dimensional
figures to creation and restoration
of carousel horses and cigar store
Indians.
His reputation is nationwide as
evidenced by a project he did for a
wealthy individual in San Antonio
who wanted his personal carousel
restored to its original glory. He
shipped seventeen wooden horses to
Sutton for restoration. That project
took a year. During the project
Sutton determined that a previous
restoration attempt had involved
filling in damage to the horses with
plaster. “I could tell the moment I
touched the horses that there was
something wrong with them. They had
a cold feel to them, not the warm
touch of wood. I took a large mallet
and smacked a horse and the plaster
shattered. I had to replace all of
that with wood,” he said. Sutton
personally returned the wooden
carousel horses to their owner after
the project was complete, which
involved driving through a blizzard
to get the job done.
Sutton
discussed the many techniques for
taking a simple block of wood and
turning it into a work of art.
“There are two main ways of carving,
the European method and the American
way,” he said. European is
characterized by very intricate
design and attention to the smallest
detail, while American is
characterized by fast carving that
takes much less time. Some of the
European works take years to
complete, sometimes involving making
only one cut a day while the carver
considers his next move, sort of a
chess game with wood. There are even
techniques that are common to one
country. Swedish carving involves
lots of flat planes on the figures.
Carving is such a personal art that
Sutton can tell just from the way an
object has been carved who the
artist was. This was in evidence
from his discussion of carousel
horses. There were several companies
back in the day whose sole business
was creating carousels. When he does
restoration work on the horses, he
can tell from the anatomy of the
horse which company was responsible
for its creation.
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The two most important tools that
a wood carver can have are a gouge
and a very sharp knife. “If a knife
is razor sharp, you are almost
there,” he said with a laugh.
Sharpening a knife is a skill that a
wood carver needs to develop. The
tools needed for sharpening are not
expensive, but technique is
everything. Sutton buys old leather
shoes and belts to use in the
sharpening process. The way the
knife is pulled against the leather
is an art in itself, called
stropping. Sutton grinned when he
said, “Cutting yourself while
sharpening your carving knife is an
everyday occurrence. I have bled a
lot over the years.”
When asked how a person can get
started in learning to carve wood,
Sutton said a sharp knife, a few
gouges of different sizes, and an
easy wood to carve are important.
“Bass wood is the easiest wood to
carve because it is soft and the
grain is easy to read. Learning how
the grain of wood affects the
carving process is vital,” he said.
Carving clubs offer classes that can
help a novice carver learn the
basics. There is a local club that
meets in Williamsville. With
practice, a carver can see the
object that is being created in the
wood and remove all of the
extraneous material. For some very
complex projects, Sutton will create
the finished project in clay and
then transfer the shape to wood.
“You can screw up clay and just add
more to change the shape, to fix it.
With wood, you are taking away
material. You only get one chance to
get it right with wood,” he said. “I
have created a lot of firewood over
the years,” he said with a smile.
[Curt Fox]
The Logan County Genealogical and
Historical Society meets monthly on
the third Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the
research facility at 114 North
Chicago Street in Lincoln. They
always have a fascinating speaker,
and the public is always welcome.
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