Blast from the Past!

Above: David Frisk, at age 20, intently hand carving.

I find it hard to believe that I have been doing woodworking for 48 years. At  age 13, I was making small pieces of furniture, chairs and such. At age 14, I made a roll-top desk. After that there was no stopping me. I started my business at age 18, in 1968. I was still a teenager, but eager to work in my trade. 

Woodcarving has always been my forte and something I have always done by hand and still do today. I got my start in business by carving designs into wooden clogs that I would sell in the park for about $35.00 a pair. I had only a few hand-carving tools at the time. 

I eventually set up a small shop in Solana Beach but still had no machinery and I had to do everything by hand. And I mean everything, from hand sawing the lumber to hand planing the lumber to hand sanding the lumber and everything else in-between. Most of my original hand tools came from my father and other relatives or I bought them at swap meets. Every penny I made went right back into my shop so that I eventually had some machines and power tools to use. I can still remember making doors, heavily carved, with only a few tools and my hands. 

I still do much of my work today in the same the way I did when I started in business back in 1968. I have no problem using my hands and my chisels to make beautiful carvings. I don't believe that machine carvings can show the beauty and the life that hand carving can. And while I rely on my machines and power tools now to help me saw and sand the wood, the carvings are still done the old fashioned way, by hand.  

Above: An older David Frisk, still intently doing his carvings!