A Surprising Find

Back in May, we were looking for something to do on a Saturday.  We found a museum south of here that sounded sort of interesting and it didn't cost very much.  So off we went to Warther's Museum.  What we found was truly a wonder to behold.  This man handcarved trains in the early 1900's.  He carved every piece including the pins to hold it all together.  He carved the words on the side from ivory.  The rest of this train is ebony.  Some of the trains had interior doors with working keys all carved by hand.  This man was a genius.

The one below was carved entirely out of ivory. 

The "tree" above is carved out of a single block of walnut.  He was famous for carving working pliers out of a single piece of wood.  One of his grandsons (maybe it was a great grandson) carved a set for Addison right on the spot.  10 cuts in 10 seconds turned into a set of working pliers.  This he made with 31,000 cuts making 511 pairs of pliers without any shavings.  There are no pins or glue holding anything together.  One single block of wood!  It's mathematical genius and it blew my mind.  Maybe this makes me a nerd, but I already knew I was one.