Soap Carving Arrowheads

With Thanksgiving approaching, Nicholas and I have been talking a lot about Native American Indians. We learned about how they hunted for food and made all of their own supplies. We learned about how they made their own tools by carving them from wood and stones.

I thought about getting some soft wood that is used for whittling so I could show Nicholas how to carve. However, the tools used for whittling are sharp so he would only be able to watch me instead of actually participating himself.

Instead, I decided to use Ivory soap for our medium. It is softer than firm butter so you can easily cut through it with a plastic knife or appetizer spreader so it is safe for Nicholas to use without cutting himself.

You can start your carving by drawing a design on the soap with a marker or just scratching into the surface with your knife. Then you just start cutting. It is amazingly easy to cut into Ivory soap. Other soaps won’t work as well because they are too firm.

Once you cut the rough shape of your design, then you can use a plastic spoon or fork or some plastic pumpkin carving tools to smooth out, round out, or make further details on your creation.

Nicholas is very proud of his hand carved arrowhead. He said he enjoys carving and wishes Mommy had bought more Ivory soap so we could do some more carving today.

Soap carving with Ivory soap is incredibly easy and even young kids can do it!

We had soap shavings all over the table though so be prepared for a little clean up after you are done. But it’s soap so we have a very clean table now!