To the left are some samples of work done by Doc & Dee's students, with the exception of the Great Seal which was crafted by Doc and the egg featuring Chuck Norris and his bride at the very bottom. The wood spirits and the wood deer are by Keith Horn. The chicakadee is by Betty Mueller. At the top is a knife crafted by Van Tischner.

Doc & Dee's story continues, I'll present it in Dee's own words.

"Doc and I recently took a class from one of our instructors, carving an eagle head in the round. Wow! Neat stuff, especially to carve with air rotary power tools. I love the fact that there is usually no additional sanding required. I am basically lazy (I don't want to sand and finish items) but I love the creativity of making something that is artistic and carving fills my desire to make something beautiful.

You asked what advice I would give a novice. I would recommend starting with air powered carving tools, unless you are determined to maintain the original ways. (hmmmm, you could also go back to horse and buggy or tilling the garden with a hoe and not a tiller). The new small air turbine, power tools are soooooooo easy, even for a beginner. I am not a free hand artist but if you can trace a line you can carve all sorts of things. I wouldn't want to do without my 400,000 rpm Powercrafter and my QC700. The QC is a 30,000 rpm air turbine tool which replaces a Dremel or Foredom, for the large areas where you want to use a bur with a 1/8" or 3/32" shank.

A lady with the last name, Irish, has great carving books, excellent drawings. I am drawn to Tom Wolfe's books on carving house spirits. I guess I like the idea that you can come up with a great face even if it isn't anything like what you intended it to be. I'd like to carve a "house spirit" in my entry way, at the end of the stair rail.

As for my wish list, I think Doc and I would enjoy a microscope to be able to use the high speed air tool for very fine scrimshaw and jewelry quality engraving on metal. Several carvers we know have tried this type of magnification and rave about it.

Speaking about the gadgets of our time. It is the air turbine tool brought to the hobby and wood carving industry about 20 years ago by a dentist from Utah, that has allowed us to build a business in carving and engraving. We bought our first power carving tool in 1989 and are now National trainers for air turbine carving tools.

Our weeks now are filled with the carving business, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week! Much of that time is teaching others how to carve with ultra high speed, air turbine tools or making kits for people to carve, or videos or writing a book. Life is way to short for all the things we'd like to do."