Biddeford-Saco Journal from Biddeford, Maine • 12

4A -J I I -'ft A ri a s- 8 tf i1 12 Blddeford-Saco Journal Thursday Mayl7 1973 is i i i- AND DOUBLE HOMES AVAILABLE -1 i i MfV A AT- i 23 3- 'I a SINGLE when I Just to lie down and die inside Three men we know of in Biddeford dream of it Corny cliche or not when bands and mind are busy making things there time for the heart and spirit to shrivel up ana wither on the vine As one the men shown on this page said: you've got something -to do time goes along just 'Two of them are in their One of them has a rheumatoid arthritic condition that prevents him from Working any longer -Except with his bands All of them interestingly enough work in wood Warren Butler 83 lives in an appropriate spot to pursue his lifelong hobby of model hard by the sea at Biddeford Pool Born in Salem Mass- he's been far from the smell and the sound of the Even when he managed the family department store in ium until he retired here in 1950 He made his first model of a boat from wood when he was 13 inspired by the lovely mqdels he saw on display at the Peabody Museum in Salem whiph now along with Essex Institute Museum there displays some 20 outstanding models made through the years Although he used' red oak strips once and made a two-foot ship model of mahogany from an old mahogany store counter Butler uses mostly basswood which he prepares and steams himself for the hull and other wooden parts such as masts spars and figureheads He buys ready made' blocks and rigging though he used to make those too Tiny buckets human figures decorative filligree hatches and cabins on deck are all made by hand Sometimes he has plans to work from and sometimes he doesn't in which case he has to draw them to scale himself Bight now working on a model of a Maine coastal topsail schooner built in Bath in 1847 He ordered the plans for it from the Smithsonian Institute On regal display in Ms home are finished models of the a fully rigged clipper Ship that plied the oil trade' between Boston and the Philippines skipper used to sit in this chair and shout a neutral trader owned by the first self-made millionaire Elias Hasket Derby during the time of Napoleon Mediator" a Bermuda sloop designed in Jamaica by pirates and purchased in 1741 by the British Navy because it was fast and could around in no and a pleasure yacht of the Dutch Admiralty in the 17th Century Commenting- on the latter Butler said employed the best artists and sculptors to decorate their vessels in high It shows of course In his authentic faithful reproduction: the tiny carved leaf scroll work small strips of metal along the rudder figure on the poop deck carvings of lions with a lion figurehead cafted handholds the flagstaff on the bowsprit and the leeboairds ancestors date from the Mayflower In fact a company of Butlers Daggetts and Nortons sailed down the coast from Massachusetts Bay Company to Maine in 1791 settling the community of New Vineyard beyond' Farmington still a lot of Butlers he said Known as The Birdhouse Man out on South Steeet in Biddeford Gene Greenwood turns out a precisely crafted wooden product that people and birds find attractive and suitable to their divergent purposes watching and living-in respectively Formerly a heavy duty shovel operator Greenwood had to quit when he was severely attacked by arthritis about five years ago What he was able to do from then on had to be done sitting down He designed and built a birdhouse he liked' For himself and his own backyard birds A friend saw it and wanted end Number Two Then came more and more of the birdhoirsesvHe now sells a few but claims away a tot more than ever sold" Consistent tenants seem to be English Sparrows) he said The tog-cabin style homes-for-birds ean be had in single or double-home versions They are painted in brown red- green or -natural with appropriate trim asbestos roofs and tiny- chimneys He buys lumber locally pieces of l-by-8 or l-by-10 feet and dries them at home boy kiln-dried any then cuts out knots and imperfections and saws the-pieces he needs from the best parts If ever you need a bird-house Greenwood lives at 707 South St Biddeford Adelard Coie 8 Harmon SL Biddeford -has been carving wood since he was 13 when ho whittled a small or for a friend -But been using a knife since he was four! He estimates whittled and carved about 1000 pieces in his lifetime Mostly larger pieces a pair of horses on the shelf in his living-room measure 6ft by 10ft indies He has carved men women moose spinning wheels carts wagons with team- fork knife and spoon seta and mudi much more through the years The 83-yearold Cote was a blacksmith for 52 years in Biddeford His former shop at 43 Alfred Street is now the parking tot next to the old Central Theater -But he still applies the skills he used in smithing to his -lifelong hobby: his knives are hand-fashioned from hayfork tines heated and pounded into shape by Hie master blacksmith and (bound to small handles with comer wire He sharpens them in the old way on a stone with a few drops of oil to keep tilings moving Eva Cote says she limits her use of knives to her own kitchen Through all the years that she's been married to the whittler never been tempted It was her husband who echoed the perhaps silent thoughts of all who work with their hands: like everything I've done in my life the blacksmithing woodcarving whittling got aomething to do times goes along fine just.