Hand Carved Farm Toys

Hand carved farm toys AG WORLD Ag World 15-5-19 "They bring back lots of memories and remind me of the old days when I was a kid," says Nebraska farmer and rancher Bob Fey about his collection of wood-carved models patterned after old-time equipment. The toys are 1/16 scale, detailed replicas of 1930's era farm equipment. Fey has more than 100 pieces in his collection including animals, horse-drawn implements, a Far-mall tractor, a windmill, rocking chairs, and tools from his grandfather's farm shop. All of the models are carved with authentic de-tail so they not only look right, but have working parts. Wheels turn, levers move, tools open up, and the manure spreader beaters rotate. The draft horses come complete with poles, eveners, and neck yokes. "I've always enjoyed looking at old machinery and carving lets me do that every day without the hassle of collecting and restoring the real thing," says Fey, who has been carving toys for 20 years. "Old timers often stop to visit with me about the way things used to work. Every time people look they see something they hadn't seen be-fore." Machinery in the collection includes a single row cultivator, sickle mower, dump rake with curved teeth, hay rake, hay rack, wagon, buggy, manure spreader, 8-ft. disk, gas engine for pumping water, and a 1935 Farmall F-30 tractor pulling a 2-bottom plow. Fey carved a complete welding shop scene based on memories of his grandfather's shop. The 9 by 11-in. wood board floor is complete with a mouse hole, mouse, and cat ready to pounce. Granddad is using a pair of tongs (they can actually be opened and closed) on an anvil to pound out a horseshoe heated in a nearby hand-powered forge. The handle can be pumped up and down to turn a wheel that powers the blower. There are coal embers on the floor made to look like they fell out of the pan. Tools on the bench include a pinchers and vise, kerosene bucket, broken single tree, 5-ft. mower sicklebar with broken-off sickle sections in need of repair, wrench, hammer, hacksaw, hatchet, hand drill, nail keg, and bolt box. A chicken sits on the edge of the bolt box and another roosts above the window. "Their droppings were often a nuisance," remembers Fey. There's a chain on the floor, as well as a grindstone with pedals that work and a wheel that turns, a sawhorse, spade, and sledge hammer. On the walls are a scythe, cross-cut saw, hand saw, axe, hand drill, corn knife, and hatchet. A kerosene lantern hangs above the bench. Fey studies and measures each piece of equipment so he can carve exact scale models. If he can't find an actual piece of equipment he works from parts books and photographs. To make the animals he first makes paper drawings and then copies them onto the wood before carving . His favorite wood for carving is hard maple. "It's close grain, hard and strong, and lets me make pieces that can be handled with reasonable care without breaking." Mrs. Fey keeps the carvings in two large curved glass china cabinets in the living room. Fey shows the carvings once a year at an exhibition in Lincoln, Neb. "We had been showing the collection more frequently, but packing, unpacking and handling resulted in more repair work than the trip was worth," he notes. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Fey, RR 1, Box 194, Palmyra, Neb. 68418 (ph 402 780-5816).

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