The Barry McKenzie Chip Carving School is located outside the city limits of Lebanon, Missouri in a quiet country setting. I have no fixed shop hours and on the front of the barn it says "PLEASE CALL AHEAD" 1-417-532-8434." If I'm here I will be glad to open up the shop to show you around to my many chip carvings on display.

You might find me in my connecting wood working shop building something to chip carve on, at the computer in the house or out in my gazebo in a rocking chair watching the fish jump in the pond or in my easy chair in the house chip carving. Please feel free to stop by to ask about chip carving.

Summary of my activities:

My goal in life is in the preservation of chip carving by promoting chip carving as I know and practice it today. Having taught for 16 years the art form of wood carving called chip carving my technique is to find methods and styles of chip carving that works best for us.  

The Quarterly "Chip Carvers Quarterly" newsletter is the only newsletter for chip carving today. We currently are in the 13th year of publication with 54 issues published to date. Each issue is free of advertising with 24 pages just for chip carver with information you can use.

What I cover in my chip carving classes: 

Classes at my School of Chip Carving here in Lebanon, Missouri are scheduled when I have enough interested in taking a class in chip carving. Mostly we start with the beginner basics and then work up in skill level with hands-on practice.

Most of my teaching is at seminars with a few workshops with woodcarving clubs inviting me in to teach chip carving. Instructions covers the basic fundamentals in the mechanics of chip carving in WHY chip carving works the way it does in wood and through practice in class HOW you can apply chip carving sucessfully to any project.

My Background:

My 30 years in drafting and design as a mechanical design draftsman and electrical field design engineer in Nuclear Power Plant construction was the aquired knowledge in understanding the mechanics of Why things work the way they do and a way to apply this discipline to my chip carving.

Many come to my workshops to learn chip carving the right way by learning the mechanics first. Any bad habits are corrected and replaced by sound techniques that will work best for you.

I cover not just the traditional geometric angular deep chip but also shallow chip and "Old World" style chip, icicle ornaments, lettering and my "new" leaf design.

My travels meeting chip carvers in Switzerland, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands has given me exposure to those "Old World" methods of chip carving I apply succefully in my chip carving today.

I have sponsored chip carvers to the USA from Sweden, Italy, Romania and The Netherlands in the past to teach chip carving here in the US which has given us more insight in the various methods and styles of chip carving expanding our worldly views in the community of chip carvers.

Resently my development of the leaf design and tramp art in my chip carving has taken my chip carving to a whole new level and direction.

WELCOME TO MY WONDERFUL WORLD OF CHIP CARVING!

Enjoy this website as a overview into my activity in chip carving.