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.
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