PARKERSBURG – Whether it is a landscape, a Christmas poinsettia, cooking utensils, funny animal caricatures and more, local woodcarvers like to whittle the hours away on their latest projects.

A group of woodcarvers gathers every Thursday afternoon at the Woodcraft store on Emerson Avenue in Parkersburg to work on new creations and talk about the different things going on.

Woodcraft also has a woodcarving club that meets regularly at its facility the second Saturday of every month.

Jim Clark, of St. Marys, was recently working on poinsettia Christmas ornaments as well as carving an eagle out of basswood. Although considered a hardwood, basswood is a softer wood that is good to carve with.

“We spend a lot of time carving basswood because it is not how hard it is, but how uniform it is,” Clark said. “When you work with pine, it is hard and soft in places. Basswood has a uniform hardness throughout that is good in retaining the details.”

One of his poinsettias took around 20 hours to complete.

“It has a lot of undercutting and things that take time,” he said.

Clark started woodcarving when he was 8 years old.

“My father was a carver so I guess I copied him,” he said.

Clark uses established patterns or draws his own, depending on his needs and what he wants to accomplish.

“There are a lot of patterns available,” he said.

Clark has an array of knives, palm gouges and other hand tools he uses. He just loves the process of creating.

“I love being able to take a raw piece of material and produce something that other people enjoy,” he said.

There are always new things to learn and new things to try.

“Another thing about it that I enjoy is you don’t learn everything there is to know about it,” Clark said. “There is always another challenge.”

He is very much into realistic carving.

“Obviously you are never going to carve anything that is 100 percent real or it would get up and walk away,” Clark said.

He also does caricature carving, a little bit of chip carving and more.

“It is so diverse that I don’t run out of challenges,” Clark said. “If you run out of challenges then that is a choice you made.”

Mike Danko, of Parkersburg, has landscaping pieces he has worked on. He is currently working on a forest landscape on a deeper piece of wood where he can add more detail. He had previously done landscape carvings on display at Woodcraft.

His finished pieces took about two months to complete. He has been working on his forest landscape for a couple of months.

“It is nowhere near being completed yet,” Danko said.

He had an uncle who was a master woodcarver. When he was young he visited his uncle’s shop in Grafton, Ohio, where he was given a piece of wood to start carving on.

Many of the carvers started young, but family commitments and work take a lot of time. Danko got out of it for a number of years.

One Christmas, his wife got him a set of exacto knives and he started messing around with them.

“Now that I am retired, it is wonderful,” Danko said. “I get to try some of the things I always wanted to do. I see something and I just go for it.”

Fred Williams, of Mineral Wells, said he started woodcarving as part of a college art class in 1969. However, his other commitments have taken up a lot of time. He has been able to get back into woodcarving.

He was working on a small caricature of a skunk that Clark continually finds humorous.

“Once I started at Woodcraft, I found several people like to do woodcarving,” Williams said. “I just have a ball with it.”

His hobby gives him a chance to get the appropriate tools.

“I tell my wife the only reason I carve is so I can buy knives,” Williams said. “I will only buy a knife if it is unique.

“My definition of ‘unique’ is if I don’t have it then it is unique.”

Working on various pieces is relaxing for Williams.

“I don’t think about anything other than what I am carving on,” he said. “My wife will tell me there are times I should be thinking about other things when I am carving.

“You can have a hard time finding a woodcarver who keeps track of time.”

Woodcraft has classes in woodcarving. The youngest member of the woodcarving club just turned 11 while the oldest member is in his 80s.

“There is never a lack of conversation,” Clark said. “There is a great diversity in the different works.”

Woodcraft hosted a carving showing recently and will also host a “Carving on the Porch” event the second weekend in July.

“We just want to get the word out that we are here and looking for people to join us,” Clark said.