[Woodcarver] The passing of a humble carver

[Richard Faulkner]

I along with the online community will share your loss because we are all a family of sorts.  Tonight after work when I sit down for my hour or two at the carving bench I will remember you and Charlie, and maybe have a drop of the Irish too.


----- Original Message ----
From: "Linehan718 at aol.com" <Linehan718 at aol.com>
To: woodcarver at six.pairlist.net
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 11:29:20 PM
Subject: [Woodcarver] The passing of a humble carver


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Dear Carvers, 
 
          My friend and carving mentor, Charlie Post passed away on Fri.   Thank you all for your prayers and sympathy.  His suffering has ended.  I think I am more relieved than sad.  Tomorrow I will be sharpening up one of his handmade knives, collecting an unfinished carving and taking it with me to the wake on Tues. There will be a whole bunch of carvers there, we will send him off properly. 
 
I wish to share a little something with you. Its a wood story. Friday night, I figured I would go out and have a drink in Charlie's memory but of course at our age, most don't care to go out, or don't drink due to medications, or can't stay up too late.  I myself, lost the taste for liquor years ago and drink very rarely but being Charlie and I are full blooded Irishmen and it being traditional to lament a passing with aged Irish whiskey, I simply had  to spill a drop o' the devils water.  I talked my sister into going with me. Not knowing a good bar to go to, I suggested a little place that I hadn't been to in 20 years, just a bar in a restaurant, nothing spectacular.  It popped into my mind because it was near Charlie's house and I kind of remembered him saying that he "had done a little work" for the bar many years ago.  We go in, sit at the bar, empty except for some old man nursing a rob Roy down at the end. We are looking around the place and it is
 almost all wood.  Beautiful wainscoting, handmade wooden ceiling fans, a massive wooden bar, real wood plank floors, handmade doors, real quality stuff.  Now you have to understand that Charlie and I only became friends in the last 5 years or so, since I began carving.  To me, he was a decent carver, great instructor, talented stained glass guy.  Prolific??? Passionate???absolutely, but would his carvings win at a world class carving show, to be honest, probably not. Bartender is delighted to have company and starts chatting with us.  He asks why of all bars in the world, we would wind up in this bar.  So I tell him, a woodcarving friend of mine passed away today and I think he may have done a little work here.  He asked me his name, I told him.  He then tells me I am sitting in the wrong seat.  I said "excuse me?", not understanding.  He says just move one seat to the right, so I did.  He then pours me a brandy snifter with a good quantity of Jameson
 Irish whiskey and proceeds to tell me to look down.  I did and what I saw was incredible.  There was an old golden plaque affixed to the front of the bar and it read.  "this Bar was handcrafted by Charlie Post".  Tell me now, is there anywhere better than that to be having a drink to his memory. He went on to tell me that Charlie did every bit of woodwork in the bar.  I was astonished and in awe. I wanted to go wake Charlie up and yell at him for not letting me know that he had built the whole damn place. I would never have guessed that Charlie was so impressive, a great carver and one hell of a carpenter.  I was so sorry that I couldn't tell him how impressed I was and yell at him for being so humble.  He passed his tools along to me and I will cherish them forever. 
 
 It is to my great disappointment that I didn't meet Charlie when he was in his prime, when he was creating masterpieces and I am honored that he felt me worthy of his time and effort.  Anyway, here's to a fantastic carver passing amongst and away from us all, just as cleanly, silently and gently as one thin woodchip, leaves the block and cascades down to the pile. May he rest in peace.  Carve on Charlie
 
Maura Carving in NYC
www.carvinginnyc.com









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