Howard Boone

Contemporary Woodcarver

Howard Boone is a contemporary woodcarver from the Franklin, Virginia area.  Like Miles Carpenter, much of his work includes birds.  Unlike Carpenter, Mr. Boone’s birds are mostly small and fairly realistic, although some are larger and more detailed.  Boone has begun carving mammals and has created a giraffe that any folk art collector would be pleased to have in his collection.

Born in August 1928, Boone retired in 1965 from the sheet mill at Union Camp Corporation.  He has carved for at least sixty years but became more dedicated since retirement.  Carving “…was just something to do, something to pass the time,” Boone explained.  “It’s just a hobby.  I can’t just sit around like a lot of people.  When they retire, they retire.  When I retire, I don’t.  I just took a hobby.  I just took it up and did it.  That’s all I know.  No training or nothing.  I took it up on my own.  I started with ducks; then I started making birds.  And I been experimenting a bit on animals….  But I haven’t been doing much on those yet.  I’m not satisfied with them.”

Boone lives in the Edgehill neighborhood outside Franklin in Southampton County.  He located there after his previous home in Kingsdale was flooded nearly to the ceiling in the flood following Hurricane Floyd in 1999.  His workshop is located in a small shed behind his house.  It has electricity; a kerosene heater provides heat and there is an air conditioner in a window.  His carvings are kept in many cardboard boxes in a loosely organized filing system.

At the time of an interview conducted for this paper, Mr. Boone was working on turkeys and small hummingbirds.  He complained about the wood available now.  “I was working on some of them the other day.  The wood is too splintery.  Trying to drill a hole in there to put the wing and just started splintering.”  He prefers cypress but it is largely unavailable now.  “White pine works pretty good.  Fir.  Something like that.  Hardwood is too hard to cut.  You can’t cut it.  And [most] pine, it’s got big grain in it.  When you cut it and sand it, it’s going to be ridged.  It’s not going to be smooth.” 

The blade of his favorite pocketknife is worn down to a thin edge.  He also uses a band saw and a Dremel tool to make birds pictured in a heavily worn book of birds and other animals.  He draws outlines of what he wants to make on a block of wood and cuts out a basic shape with the band saw.  He continues, “Take the band saw and cut the edges a little bit.  Kinda round it a little bit.  Then you got to do the rest with the knife.  Then you got to use the Dremel tool to sand it down.  I done wore out four of them.”   [Referring to Dremel tools.]   He indicated that carving curved necks is difficult, and he often pieces two parts together using small metal rods as interior supports.

He buys acrylic, water-based craft paints from Walmart and occasionally mixes colors, but frequently is able to find the color he wants in small bottles.  He uses “…just regular art brushes … small art brushes.”  Each bird takes about two days to make – one for carving and one for painting.  “I always find the color ones first.  I don’t ever make many females.  Males, most all of them are males.  Females don’t have many colors.  People don’t know that, but females don’t have no color.  Most of them are plain.”

Asked if there were something different he would like to make, he answered, “I haven’t ever thought about it.  I just think of something I think I can make.  I do it.  I’m just experimenting on the other ones, the animals now.  They seem like – if they don’t do right, I just don’t like to do it.  It it’s something I’m not familiar with….  I just do it for a hobby.  That’s all I do.”

Howard Boone is obviously dedicated to his hobby.  His collection of birds is amazing in its variety and number.  He sells carvings at nominal prices to individuals and donates others.  He made many turkeys for place setting decorations at a Thanksgiving meal at Franklin Baptist Church.  The public has a chance to buy his work at Heritage Day in Southampton County.

He gets an endorsement from his wife Jane, “I think he does a good job,” she said. “It gives him something to do since he’s retired.”

When one pleases his wife, he has done well.

Sources 

Boone, Howard.  Personal interview.  11 Feb. 2012.

"Carving a Niche."  Tidewater News [Franklin, Virginia] 29 Jan. 2012, B sec.: 1.  Print.