Dremelin' Along

I am responsible for this, I'll admit it.

Hubby purchased a dremel a couple of years ago. What a fun tool!!!! I just couldn't help myself. I carved and carved & carved. This is made of Black Birch. Friends of ours have land in the Catskills & this tree fell over during a storm. They cut it into pieces for me & I gladly hauled it home. I only worked on this less than a week. I first had to find the stencil. Then I drew shape on to bark. Then the fun began & I started carving with the dremel. Didn't take me long to realize I needed to wear some kind of eye protectant.

Now, I am not sure how many of you may or may not know, but birch bark & twigs smell like...
yup you guessed it....BIRCH BEER. I loved birch beer as a kid. It was always such a treat. Well, any kind of soda was a treat, but Birch Beer was by far my favorite!

I was quite sad when I finished as this project as it had been so delightful to both my sense of smell & sense of sight. I could not believe how nice it was coming out! Especially, for not having really ever used power tools of any kind before. I have since used a jig saw for some very nice Cub Scout projects. But really don't have much desire to use other powered tools -chain saw - no thanks; table saw - once again no thanks; power drill, power stapler, power hammer, power washer - yeah I'd probably be up to using those if the right projects came along.

My husband was kind enough to spray some kind of protectant on each piece. He also always remembers to put them in the garage each winter. So this will be our 3rd, maybe 4th summer with them displayed in our front yard. I will be sad to see them go when it is time.

Now how come none of you Scouters let us in on this tool secret when it came time for Pine Wood Derby? I never liked the Pine Wood Derby because I never felt it was a kid friendly building event. After I discovered the dremel, I took a 180 degree turn in that thinking. Of course, I only had one more car to make in our Scouting career. (We switched every 2 years back & forth from Pinewood to Rain Gutter Regatta).

BTW -- I had so much fun, I did try to carve a stamp or 2 with the dremel...nope not too successful...LOL. Dremel & rubber just didn't seem to be very compatible, at least for Maple Leaf Red.