Chainsaw carving is a family affair

A former Kiwi wood chopping champion has converted himself and his family into a chainsaw carving dream team.

Brian Trow said the Fieldays Freestyle Stihl and Waikato Draught Chainsaw Carving Competition was a family tradition and they had been coming for at least 20 years.

Mr Trow discovered chainsaw carving in 1984 while in the United States for a competition with the New Zealand wood chopping team.

He said he was instantly taken by the abstract form of art.

“I just saw it and thought, I could do that, so I did.”

The father of four has passed the passion for carving down to his sons who together own a portable wood mill so they can carve whenever they feel like it.

His son Wayne said chainsaw carving takes a lot of concentration and fitness.

“The fitter you are the more intricate you can carve the log.”

Wayne, who is a screen printing sales manager, said his dad taught him and his brothers to carve when he was 16 so they are pretty practised at it now.

All the men agreed you definitely go into the carving with an idea of what it will look like at the end.

“I always know what I’m going to, you just have to see the carving in the log and go from there,” said Brian.

Wayne has won the competition around four times before and is hoping he can do it for the family again this year.

But he said, “If I don’t cut anything off there’ll definitely be a sense of satisfaction.”

The Trow boys will be carving on Thursday and Friday for six hours straight from 9am.

At the end of the competition the carvings will be auctioned off and the money donated to St Johns.