Some artists use a paint brush. Others use clay. Some use spray paint. David McKamey and his wife, Sam, use a chainsaw.
The McKameys are the proud owners of The Carving Lot, a Penticton-based small business where they use their chainsaw skills to make art out of logs.
For the past six years, they’ve made a good living using wood, preferably cedar logs, a chainsaw and their creative talents to carve furniture, households items and so much more.
The McKameys have gained such a solid reputation around town that organizers of Penticton Peach Festival asked them to showcase their skills on the main stage in Okanagan Lake Park on several occasions this weekend during the 77th annual Peach Festival.
“We have a group of arborists who work for us who take down cedar trees for us,” he said. “That’s our favourite wood to use. We do chainsaw carvings from custom orders at peoples’ homes from really small stuff to some larger stuff that we have on display here in our booth at Peach Fest.”
He and his wife have managed to turn The Carving Lot into a full-time business venture for more than six years and they are succeeding in a an artistic endeavour many of their friends and family thought might not be successful.
“We’re very fortunate to do what we love for a living,” he said. “We focus on chainsaw carving, but we do wood refinishing on timber homes and do any kind of custom builds our customers might look at when it comes to wood.”
David, 30, won’t say who has the better chainsaw skills, but says he and his wife both love what they do and they make a dynamic business duo.
“We’re in this together, we collaborate on every project as a team,” he said. “We have a friendly competition between us, but it keeps things exciting.”
A lot of their commissions come from outside the city and they also attend a lot of events like Penticton Peach Fest, where they rent a booth to show off some of their best work to attract more clients, he said.
“We do a lot of travelling,” he said. “We just got back from Powell River, where we competed in a big chainsaw cutting competition out there. We just got back from a festival in Valemount. We travel around to meet more customers. It keeps things entertaining and allows us to meet a lot of new customers.”
McKamey said there was no history of chainsaw carving in his or his wife’s family. He got interested by chance.
“We stumbled upon a pro carver who ended up in our driveway one day and he asked me to give him a hand,” he said. “I just started carving with him that day and it just kind of grew from there. It got to a point where we thought we might try and run this as a business and it just took off from there.”
Like any artist, you have to hone your skills to become more proficient and that’s exactly what they’ve done.
“It basically comes down to practice,” he said. “You learn how to better use the tool, in this case a chainsaw, and learn what it’s capable of doing. There’s a lot more flow in our work now from when we started.”
Being asked to demonstrate their skills in front of large crowds at Peach Fest is quite an honour, he said.
“I think we’ve got four sessions up on the main stage,” he said. “We’ll be doing some speed carving and on Saturday, we have a one-hour slot, so we’ll try and put together a nice carving from scratch for the crowd. We’re very thankful for being asked to participate. It’s going to be fun.”
McKamey said he and his wife take great pride in their work and put as much effort into carving a small piece as a larger, intricate piece.
Being able to do what you love makes going to work a pleasure and he and his wife hope The Carving Lot is around for many years to come.
“Hopefully, we’re in this for the long run,” he said. “It’s great being able to work beside my wife. We’re two peas in a pod.”
While they prefer to work with cedar, he and his wife can use their carving skills on basically any kind of wood a customer might prefer, he said.
“We’ve used 100-year-old Lilac trees, black walnut, all kinds of trees,” he said. “We always keep scraps of trees in case another customer wants to use it. Most of our work is with cedar, but we’re
flexible.”
You can also reach The Carving Lot by phone at 250-488-4266.
