Lancaster master carver makes his hobby pay off
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LANCASTER -- As a master carver, Chris Lubkemann has 10 rules of thumb for the wannabe whittler:
1. Make sure your knife is sharp.
2. Your knife must be really sharp!
3. Don't try carving with a knife that isn't sharp.
You get the point.
For more than 30 years, the good-humored Mr. Lubkemann, who operates a small shop at the Amish Farm and House on Route 30 East, has turned throwaway twigs into keepsake carvings.
His 10 sharp-witted rules are featured in his latest 98-page paperback book, "The Little Book of Whittling" (Fox Chapel Publishing, $12.95), designed as a how-to manual for beginners, especially hikers and campers. Mr. Lubkemann, 61, is a regular contributor to Chip Chats, the National Wood Carvers Association magazine, and the author of "Whittling Twigs and Branches," published by Fox Chapel in 2002.
"I think, in this day and age, when we are surrounded by technology and live such busy lives, people appreciate learning ways to do something simple and relaxing," said Traci Hunt, Fox Chapel manager of marketing.
"[Whittling] is a very accessible, learnable craft and probably the cheapest craft you could think about," said Mr. Lubkemann, who lives in Smoketown.
The craft has been good for Mr. Lubkemann economically.
His whittled roosters, lamps, pickle forks, back scratchers, salt and pepper shakers and other "critters" actually helped put himself, and, later, two of his children, through college.
Mr. Lubkemann began carving out his niche in the jungles of South America.
His parents were missionaries in Peru and Brazil.
"I grew up in the jungle, with slingshots, tree houses and alligators," he said. "My mother was the first white person in certain parts of the Amazon."
In the remote forests, Mr. Lubkemann developed an appreciation for wood and entertained himself and others by handcrafting rafts, tree houses, traps and slingshots from scrap wood.
It was after returning to the United States that he was exposed to branch and twig carving in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Teaching others to transform twigs with a pocketknife became a passion that Mr. Lubkemann pursued with missionary zeal.
In Portugal, where he and his wife, Sheri, served as missionaries for 14 years, Mr. Lubkemann appeared on national television to showcase the skill. That led to a whittling craze of sorts, and some people began carving roosters, the country's symbol, to sell to tourists.
Mr. Lubkemann has led programs and demonstrations worldwide. Not only has his work been featured on TV and in magazines, but it also has made the record books. In 1981, he was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records for the world's smallest branch carving, a one-eighth-inch tall rooster.
The enterprising whittler even designed a special carving knife that is manufactured by a company in Portugal.
Mr. Lubkemann, who has three children and three grandchildren, moved to Lancaster County in 1986, and has been a regular fixture at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg since. He started an annual Pennsylvania Branchcraft Whittling Exposition and Contest.
Besides being a whittler extraordinaire, Mr. Lubkemann is recognized for initiating the first standardized reduced-scale version of table tennis, called micro-pong table tennis, and a Team-Maze game, used to teach cooperation and goal-setting.
Mr. Lubkemann is quite proud of his 20-foot-high carpeted tree house with a crow's nest.
"It's the coolest tree house in Lancaster County," he said.
In and out of his tree house, he turns to whittling as a surefire way to relax.
He recalls talking to a gentleman who came into his Amish Farm and House shop, where Mr. Lubkemann is resident woodcarver.
"I made a comment that I thought I could do stress-reduction workshops for Wall Street stockbrokers. I told him he could buy a pocketknife and go to Central Park or wherever they were pruning branches, and I'd show him how to relax.
"He turned to me and said, 'I'll buy your book. I'm a stockbroker on Wall Street.' "
His newest book provides basic information about choosing woods, carving knives and sandpaper and offers detailed, photo-illustrated instructions for 18 projects, including a whistle, canoe and stick figure.
The rooster is Mr. Lubkemann's trademark piece and, in his carved rooster "caricature collection," he has given them human traits. For instance, the "snob" has his beak in the air.
Whether it's roosters or pickle forks, the neatest thing about whittling, Mr. Lubkemann said, is the unique results.
"No matter how many of the same item you make, each one is different, just like a snowflake."
Marty Heisey, Lancaster New Era photos via APChris Lubkemann, a master carver, whittles a small piece of wood in Lancaster.
Click photo for larger image.
For more than 30 years, the good-humored Mr. Lubkemann, who operates a small shop, has turned throwaway twigs into keepsake carvings, such as the rooster.Click photo for larger image.
First Published August 21, 2006 12:00 am
