Description

Who doesn’t like a dinosaur? Very similar to carve to the river otter with a bit more curves. Dino can be carved to a very smoothed shape, or a more chiseled and feature-rich figure. Like the otter, the tail can be sharpened to make an excellent letter-opener can be shaped into a rounder more natural shape.

The Dino’s Inspiration

Dino was inspired by Sauropods, the largest of the dinosaurs. Some are estimated to have weighed more than a jumbo jet and were taller than a 5 story building! Some of them such as Nigersaurus replaced their teeth every two weeks. They have been found with necks over 49 feet – that’s 6x longer than the largest Giraffe! Large dinosaurs first roamed the world starting around 243 million years ago, though sadly they disappeared around 66 million years ago. Today the only way to see them is to visit museums or other locations that display their bones and likenesses, or to see their bones and fossils still in the ground in places like Dinosaur National Monument. To see their living descendants today though all one needs to do is look to the skies where birds carry on their lineage (though in a much smaller form).

General Description (applies to all our Critters)

All our Critters are made from basswood and roughly 1″ thick, 1.75″ tall and 10″ long. They can all be made into nifty letter openers (just carve their nose/tail into a flatter shape with sharp edges) or carved more true to their namesake critters. While they vary in difficulty (which we try to describe in the description for each) their long, slender shape lends themselves to easier whittling and safe, easy holding (never cut towards yourself or have any part of your body in the path of the knife).

The time it takes to carve will of course vary by Critter but even moreso by experience. Most will take many hours to get right, but if you’re skilled at whittling and “hurry” they can be carved to 90%+ within a few hours. These make excellent projects for learning to carve. They’re excellent gifts both carved and uncarved.

These whittling “kits” are perfect to learn to whittle with. These make excellent carving projects whether you’re looking for a project to do with your kids, grandkids, cousins, friends, or just to do yourself. There’s no easier way to learn carving in wood. We offer ones of varying difficulty to satisfy everyone from the novice to expert. As you get better at carving you’ll be able to add more details to help make each one uniquely yours.

These make excellent group activities whether it’s for your scouting group looking to learn to carve, or your book-club looking for a new activity. All you need is a sharp knife (a locking knife and safety gloves are highly recommended) and a Critter! All of our Critters are designed to make excellent letter openers for those wanting a fun and practical project. They can just as easily be carved into a more natural shape if you don’t need a letter opener. These make excellent gifts, either as blanks to introduce whittling to someone, or fully carved to give them a piece of art. These make an excellent craft project as a stand alone activity, or provides something fun to do while sitting around the campfire talking.

Whittling is an excellent way to relax and slow down. A chance to make something truly yours and explore your artistic side. Our Critters are designed around being easy to carve but there’s no limit to the details you can add. You can easily stop once you’ve roughed the shape with a knife, or you can take it further, sanding off the whittling marks. You can leave it as the natural wood, stain it, or paint it to truly bring out the character of the critter. Carve a single critter, or carve them all, it’s all up to you!