SOSMagAprilJune2021

By Sue Daugherty I rarely meet someone age 55+ who doesn’t know John Hufnagle. John, age 84, was a successful manager of the Sandusky Sears store for 20 years. When I say John’s name, people are quick to tell me they knew John because they either worked with him at Sears or they have friends or relatives who did. John is also a talented carver/artist. It started by being a tool collector. Then one Christmas day, John’s wife, Gwen, gave him a carving knife, a Santa pattern and a block of wood. “When she handed it to me all she did was smile,” he said. “She knew I had a full set of carving knives.” Self-taught, he completed the Santa carving between Christmas and New Year’s Day. That was 30 years ago. “Carving is relaxing and what is most enjoyable is the end product. I started with carving a Santa. Each year, I come up with a new Santa pattern. I still carve today and I am surprised by the number of people who want to buy a new Santa or an angel,” he said. I’m behind by three Santa’s right now.” Carving is a time consuming hobby. For this reason, he doesn’t keep track of the number of hours it takes to create one carving. “I don’t keep track of the hours, on purpose,” he said. He discovered the Wood Carvers Den in Bellevue, run by Al and Juanita Clark. It was there that he learned from other carvers and took classes taught by wood carving instructors. As he honed his skills, he carved caricatures, wild life, heads and full figures. He also learned pyrography (wood-burning) and relief carvings. A relief carving, is a carving that looks like a 3-D picture. He has made them as large as 2 ½ ‘ x 2 ½’ and the level of detail, with which he carves, is incredible. Three years into his hobby, he was in the Merry- Go-Round Museum’s wood carving show. Intending to only do his own carvings, while at the museum, fate had other plans for him. After the show, John discovered he was needed to restore carousel horses. He became their first carving volunteer. As a volunteer, he later replaced a paid carver who had JOHN HUFNAGLE & JJ FISCHER: 14