Thursday's Den meeting was an exciting one for the boys, learning how to use and care for a pocketknife. Sister Slade first went over the safety rules:
- A Knife is a tool, not a toy.
- Know how to sharpen a knife. A sharp knife is safer because
it is less likely to slip and cut you.
- Keep the blade clean.
- Never carry an open pocket knife.
- When you are not using your knife, close it and put it away.
- Keep your knife dry.
- When you are using the cutting blade, do not try to make big
shavings or chips. Easy does it.
- Make a safety circle: Before you pick up your knife to
use it, stretch out your arms and turn in a circle. If
you can't touch anyone else, it is safe to use you knife.
We had a special guest Brother Dwain Gray (Sister Slade's dad). Brother Gray showed the boys a few different types of pocketknives, including one of his prize pocketknives with a picture of John Wayne on it. None of the boys knew who John Wayne was, (way before their time) so they seemed unfazed by Brother Gray's enthusiasm of this knife. Brother Gray then showed the boys the proper way to sharpen their knives using a wet stone. Brother Gray and Brother Slade worked with each boy giving them the opportunity to sharpen their own knives.
After getting their knives nice and sharp each boy was given a bar of soap which they traced an outline of a bear on. Sister Slade then demonstrated how to use their knives to carve out the bear and make a soap sculpture. All the boys did a great job, and seemed to really enjoy the experience and amazingly enough we didn't lose any fingers or even draw blood for that matter.
Finally, each boy took the "Pocketknife Pledge" earning the privilege of carrying a pocketknife to designated Cub Scout functions. The completion of this achievement (19) has also earned the boys his "Whittling Chip" card, which he can carry in his wallet. If you were wondering why you son didn't bring home his fabulous soap carving it is because they seemed to have as much fun throwing them at each other as they did carving them. Luckily we got pictures of them before these soap sculptured bears became extinct. Awesome job guys, we love you :-)
Just a quick thank-you to my daughter, Cami Starks, who always seems to know just the right songs to put on our slide show presentations, so don't miss out watching your boys in action.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
"Tying it all up"
Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com
We had planned to complete achievement 22 in one week, however, February and March brought with it, seven new members to our Den. We went from four boys to eleven in a very short period of time. We only got through half of the knots and two of the four requirements to complete this achievement. We decided that we would turn our one week of knot tying, into two, in order to better accommodate the boys, giving them each an opportunity to complete all of the requirements during our den meetings.
The first week each boy was given a piece of rope. Sister Slade and Sister Lewis showed the boys how to whip the ends of their rope to prevent the ends from fraying. Brother Slade taught each boy how to tie a square knot, used in first aid to tie bandages, a sheet bend knot, used to join ropes of different sizes together, and then the two half hitche knot, used to tie a rope to a post, a tree, or a ring. Sister Lewis learned these knots along with the boys and was then able assist Brother Slade in teaching them. Sister Slade taught the boys a magic rope trick, by holding the rope while folding their arms and then tying a knot as they unfolded their arms, with out letting go of the rope.
The second week of "Tying It All Up" was spent learning two more knots, the bowline knot used as a rescue knot when tied around the waist, and a slip knot. The boys then learned how to keep a rope from tangling and finally the boys had to coil a rope then throwing it, hitting a 2 foot-square target from approximately 20 feet away. Everyone seemed to have a good time tying knots, learning magic rope tricks and matering hitting the target with their new found rope throwing skills. Good job boys, keep working on those knots, you never know when you may need them.
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