Whittle

Whittle

Almost no one does this anymore. Many people don't even know the word. And I guess in modern life, sticks aren't as prevalent in many places, or people aren't in proximity to a ready supply of small pieces of wood, so it doesn't seem practical. But whittling is using a small knife to shape or pare down wood, typically. It is the kind of handcraft that you can do while sitting outside, with nothing in particular on your mind. It is like carrying a sketchbook, or knitting, in that it gives you something to occupy your hands and concentration in a way that is both loose and rewarding.

Modern people almost never do this except when they are sitting around a campfire, and need a stick for marshmellows. And then, if you have a penknife, and you start doing it, you realize how pleasurable it is, and how satisfying. While campfires invariably remind us of everything good, what if we just whittled?

This is one of those anachronistic analog arts of life that gives you something to do besides diving into a screen, which is what most of us end up doing with the spare moments between things. What if, instead, you carried around a sketchbook and a penknife and harvested those spare moments to engage in handcraft beauty. How would that support you?