I dedicate this book to my wonderful wife, partner, mother of three kids and grandmother to half a handful, and maybe two handfuls in time to come. I owe her more thanks than words could ever say for putting up with me for almost forty years.

After we had been married for twenty-five years, she instilled in me the thing I loved to do most when I was a kid. That was to "whittle." One thing I liked to make was a propeller-on-a-stick, like the one shown here. .....

..... Before long there were still more things beginning to happen that would keep my mind off of whittling. There was school, of course, and grass to mow, ballgames to play, fish to catch, buddies to hang out with, and girls, like the ones who came home with my sisters for the weekends.

"Girls"! Can you believe that girls could somehow keep a boy's mind off of whittling?

As it turned out, .....

..... I came home from work one day about fifteen years ago, and my wife was looking through a magazine. She said to me, "Would you look at this cute whimsy." Of course I didn't know what she was talking about so I asked, "What is a whimsy?" She told me it was a ball in a cage with a chain, all whittled from one piece of wood. .....

..... After three failed attempts, I finally accomplished my first whimsy. (shown here) .....

..... Of all the carvings I have done in the last fifteen years this little slender pyramid is my wife's favorite (shown here). It came about by accident. It was a sliver of Bass wood sawed off from a larger piece. One day I wanted to whittle, so I rummaged through my box of scrap wood and found this little splinter. I started smoothing it up with my knife, not really sure what I was going to make with it. After whittling it to a sharp point, I began to imagine that there might be a ball hidden inside this little triangle. .....

..... Just use your imagination and what you end up with will probably be a one of a kind. .....

..... The first projects in this book are the easy ones to get you started in the right direction. I will close this introduction with a saying that I have heard all my life, "Only God can make a tree." So let's get started and make the best out of what God gave us. After all, life without trees would be downright boring for us whittlers!

Happy whittling and may you find as many hours of peace and contentment as I have in your new hobby.

Jack D. Jackson

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