I taught this a few times. Kids love this one.  Make sure you have bandaids handy when you teach. Even though you talk about knife safety and first aid, at least 2-3 end up cutting themselves every time.

My recommendations when teaching:

1. Buy those bags of small basswood carving blocks from AC Moore (local craft store), they work well for the relief carving. Estimate 2 blocks for each kid.

2. If yellow or white pine trees are in your area, cut a few dead branches (ones at least an inch thick). These are perfect for the final carving.

3. Stay away from those cheapy carving knifes in the scout store. You will need several real carving gouges and some sharp narrow chisels.

4. What I did at summer camp two years ago was go to the local lumber mill (we fortunately have one in town – Gardner Brothers) and bought several 16 or 18″ wide planks (they actually donated them to the scouts, very nice people). I pre- cut the boards to parts that when assembled, they created a very useful camp stool.  (There is a 4th piece, a brace in the middle, you can’t see in this photo.)

I borrowed the branding irons from the pioneering MB station one night and we had lots of fun woodburning designs into the sides & tops. The scouts had to cut the v-notch in the legs, predrill (why do kids love hand drills so much?), hand plane the top, and then assemble. When done, they had to carve a relief drawing in the top. Some came out really nice. The photo below was my example, I never had time to finish it. I think the kids really enjoyed doing this. The photo does not do it justice, they did come out really nice and hopefully they give the kids fond memories of camp and the night we had working on these.