[Woodcarver] The passing of a humble carver

[Fran Hill]

Maura, what a beautiful tribute.  There's obviously something of the Irish
poet or storyteller in you.  You did him a great honor, and it made me wish
I could have met him and seen his work at the bar.  What a neat way to
remember him. You'll have to stop in to that bar from time to time - maybe
on the anniversary of his death, or the day you met him or something.  What
a wonderful story.  Thanks for sharing.

Arkansas Fran 

 

  _____  

From: woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net
[mailto:woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net] On Behalf Of Linehan718 at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 11:29 PM
To: woodcarver at six.pairlist.net
Subject: [Woodcarver] The passing of a humble carver

 

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 <http://www.carvinginnyc.com/> 







  _____  

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