The Legend of the Dala Horse

  It is said that when Thomas Edison was asked about his many attempts to invent the light bulb, that he commented, " I did not fail, I found out one thousand ways that won't work." I like to keep this quote in mind when I think of some of the first attempts at creating a dala horse. It all seemed simple enough in my head. I figured that a solid piece of wood bombarded with multiple carefree chisel strikes would do the trick, right? I went out to the back yard to chose my victim carefully. At long last I saw it! A fine specimen of a log. Who knows what kind of wood it was, that small detail didn't seem important at the time. All I knew is that it looked fantastic, ripe for the shaping...and so it began. Chop! Smash! Wham! I released my fury upon it, pelting it with blow after blow. I struck and struck until I could strike no more. As I sat there exhausted with hands of fire, I peered down upon the desolation caused by my hammer and second rate chisel. Expecting to see some real progress, you could imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had merely grazed the surface. Days went by as I attempted to shape the stubborn log into something that somewhat resembled the Dala. Chisel after chisel was left in ruin upon the wayside in the vicious campaign. Eventually it began to come together, yes, I could see it now. Excitement filled my soul as I realized that although still in rough shape, I was only a few chisel stikes away from victory. I carefully placed the chisel in a strategic position to break the last chunk of wood free before the preliminary figure was complete. I raised the hammer high in the air with triumph in my eyes. The hammer came down as I witnessed the unthinkable. Half the horse lay on the table and the other half on the ground. One cannot express such anger as to the kind that entered my heart that day.

               It was weeks before I tried again. With the help of a friend, I tried a much more civilized approach of gluing three pieces of softer wood together and then making the preparatory cuts with a detail saw. The new method worked great.

...and the rest is history.