This is basically raw, unedited footage made in 1982 by Rick Mastelli for a projected video by Taunton Press. For reasons I don't know, the project wasn't completed. I believe several black and white stills from these sessions were used in a Fine Woodworking article on the basic knife grasps.
I assume this was Wille's second trip to the U.S., when he taught the first spoon and bowl course at Country Workshops. Here you see a craftsman at the height of his powers, working in a new environment and explaining what he's doing and why in his second (third?) language. Clearly he's a master of both the work and teaching it.
Along with Wille's book, Swedish Carving Techniques, and the later Taunton video by his son Jögge, this video will give anyone interested in carving with hand tools, beginner or more advanced, plenty of food for thought. I still have new "aha" moments every time I look these over. Wonderful "ahas" I feel not just in the brain, but in the hands: one of life's great pleasures!
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Musing about this while driving home yesterday, I realized that in all the instances I can think of, Wille and Jögge Sundqvist always make spoons from crooks in their videos - - never from a straight-grained blank. That makes the video from Niklas Karlsson I link to in the next entry that much more valuable!
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