Chainsaw artist shines at community day
Khayree Wilson Jr. shows off his basketball cookie before taking the first bite.
Youngsters enjoy a ride on the Vortex during Peters Township Community Day Saturday.
Emilie Angel of Peters Township helps at the McMurray Rotary Club booths, where youngsters were able to make buttons using images from comic books and similar publications.
A youngster enjoys a ride on the A-Train through part of Peterswood Park.
Joe King from Seven Springs sculptures an eagle out of wood at Peters Township Community Days.
This woodend eagle was sculptured by Joe King of Seven Springs at Peters Township Community Days Saturday.
Chisels, gouges and knives are fine tools for most woodcarving artists.
As he demonstrated Saturday during Peters Township Community Day, Joe King takes it a gasoline-powered step further.
“The first chainsaw carving I saw was 26 years ago, and I thought, ‘Wow! What a great idea. Maybe I can do that,'” King explained while taking a break to fill the tank of his Stihl.
He then went back to work on what started in the morning as a log and tranformed by late afternoon into an ornate sculpture of an eagle.
“The thing about it, it’s fast,” King said about his favorite form of hewing. “It takes a lot of practice, years and years of practice, but it’s a fast way to do it. You make big things in one day, as opposed to something little that can take two weeks.”
Under a clear sky, visitors to Peterswood Park for community day had the opportunity to see King in action, whittling away at white pine.
“It’s a soft wood, and there are two advantages,” he said about his choice of timber. “One, I can complete a big piece in one day. And the other thing is, hard wood makes more dust. With pine, it goes faster and is more fun to watch.”
Onlookers had the opportunity to buy raffle tickets for the finished product. Proceeds benefit the township parks and recreation departments, staff members of which organize and run community day, assisted by a core of dedicated volunteers.
As for King, his chainsaw-assisted artistry has turned into a business that takes him all over the country.
“I specialize in on-site tree stumps. You have the tree in your front yard, cut it down, leave the stump, and I carve it,” the Seven Springs resident said. “A lot of times there’s landscaping built around a tree, and rather than grind it out and start over, they have a statue.”
For more information, visit www.treecarver.com.