Skill and a Whittle Bit of Patience

Most people probably wouldn’t recognize the name of Jim R. Rahm, let alone his face.

Yet the Fountain Valley man is something of a legend among whittlers. When he enters a contest, chances are he’ll walk away with the top prize.

“I like to think I’m one of the best,” he acknowledged.

He’s best known for his wood chains, which begin as one chunk of bass wood and are transformed into a continuous chain of interlocking pieces.

“I’ve been doing this ever since I can remember,” said Rahm, 67, a carpenter who retired after 44 years in the trade and who has branched out to other types of carving, including wood caricatures. “I get a kick out of those funny-looking things.”

Rahm will show his collection of wood chains at the upcoming Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa.

But don’t expect to see him whittle.

“Watching people whittle is really boring,” said the soft-spoken former Marine who served during World War II. “I’ll show a bunch of chains I’ve done, I’ll give a little speech and I’ll answer questions. That’s it.”

He contends that if he started whittling, “I’d lose my audience. It really is boring to watch,” he repeated.

Rahm said his wife, Betty, 65, started whittling about six years ago, but unlike him, she mainly carves little animals and ducks.

“She found out if you can’t whup them, join them,” he grinned.

There are several reasons why Rahm doesn’t often sell his wood chains.

“I want to keep them, and there aren’t many wood-chain collectors out there who are rich (enough) to buy them,” he said. The price tag on each of his 18-inch-long carvings is $2,000.

He said it took 240 hours to complete one of his more complicated wood chains but notes that he can whittle a simple chain in about 1 1/2 hours.

It took him a week of continuous whittling to complete a 10-foot-long chain that was used to open a highway in San Simeon.

After the wood streamer was cut to open the road, Rahm pieced it back together. The chain was then donated to the California Carvers Guild Museum in San Simeon, where it is on display.

Despite a declining interest in the craft by younger people, “I don’t think whittling will ever die,” said Rahm, who once taught whittling at a Fountain Valley lumber yard.

“There are a lot of people who do it for a hobby,” he added, noting that there are 2,000 members in the California Carvers Guild, which meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at Huntington Beach City Hall.

He is also a member of the National Carvers Guild.

“It’s a relaxing hobby,” said Rahm.

Despite being retired, “I don’t have much time to whittle,” he said. ‘I have a garden to care for and I have to maintain the house.”

But he also has another chore.

“I needed a new carving knife, so I made one for myself and whittlers liked it, too,” said Rahm, who quickly became a mini-entrepreneur and so far has made and sold 800 of the knives.

Rahm still has a replica of a Marine Corps hat he carved from wood, complete with the Corps emblem.

It is one of three he made. He sold the other two for $200 and $300, but the last is not for sale.

“I’m going to donate this to the Marine Corps Museum in San Diego” Rahm said.