Whittled Whimsey #7
Signed and dated PR Drumm, 2001
Hickory (old baseball bat)
47 1/2" x 2" max. dia.

Exhibited on World Wide Web, http://www.whittledwhimseys.com, now in Erik Drumm Collection.

Aged seasoned Hickory is a great challenge for a whittler who uses a pocketknife.

This old baseball bat was 30” long until months of whittling extended it link by link into 47” long Whittled Whimsey #7. Then it was returned to Erik Drumm, whose father Patrick had given uncle PR Drumm several bats the boys used.

A working lock at the bathead and a hasp at the handle end enabled this WW#7 to be part of PR Drumm’s exhibition chain, 35’ long in 2007, shown at wood-carving shows.

The Louisville Slugger name was left intact to show this whimsey’s origin.

Besides the lock, there are nine whimsy objects; the rest are chain links – fifty-six of them, taking about two hours to carve each one.

Seven photos show the whimsy progression from the head end to the handle end.

This is Photo #1, which shows the coiled whimsey.

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Photo #2 shows the lock, a unique design (no two PR Drumm locks are alike).

Using ‘scoop cuts’ (forward and backward) with pocketknife, 3 uprights and

1 crosspiece were whittled. The crosspiece became the locking-bar which presses into the lock-recess whittled in the retaining upright.

Pivot-hinges were whittled, which enable the locking-bar to be pivoted to open, or pivoted to lock

Photo #3 shows a cylindrical four-bar cage with square cage containing a ball.

Using the rigid pocketknife for forward and backward scoop-cuts AND as push chisel, most of the excavation  of the cage and the square was whittled.

A ¼”  ‘beavertooth’ chisel was diamond-filed from a short screwdriver and did a fine job of chiseling the curves of the top and bottom of the square, and the curves of the ball within the square.

Any short screwdriver that will not snap when tightening screws, can be diamond-filed into an excellent chisel that doesn’t snap like chisels made for Basswood carving.

Not only that, it holds a good edge for hours of chiseling even such a hardwood as seasoned Hickory.   

Photo #4 shows an Original American head whittled with rigid pocketknife.

No fine details were whittled – suggestive features are enough for this whimsey. 

Photo #5 shows the Louisville Slugger 125L logotype.

The chain continues behind the carefully-retained logo.

The bat is one-piece, although it grew much longer as each link was whittled free.

Photo #6 shows a squatting totem figure, suggestive only, no fine features.

Photo#7 shows five ball-in-cages whittled out of the narrow handle in addition to the chain links, and the hasp.

No two are exactly alike, and are whittled with the rigid pocketknife and different widths of handmade ‘beavertooth’ chisels.

Also shown is the hasp, hollowed out of the bat handle rim.