KINGMAN – New England native Dick Stokes started carving using wood scraps he found in debris created by Hurricane Bob in 1991.

“It’s been a hobby mostly,” said Stokes, who will show off some of his creations at the National Folk Festival from 5 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24. Stokes is among the demonstrators for “Arts in the woods,” a component of the Folk Festival that showcases crafts and skills derived from Maine’s lumbering traditions. The spoons, forks, mugs, ladles, water dippers and bowls he fashions mostly from hardwoods make them sturdy pieces of functional cookware, which primarily are used for rugged outdoor camping. As he placed several of his pieces on the kitchen table at his Kingman home recently, Stokes explained how his hobby has evolved from being a simple form of recreation for him to serving a more practical purpose.

He said that after his involvement a decade ago with annual camping trips sponsored by the National Muzzle Loading and Rifle Association, his hobby became more useful. Participants in the outings camp out like their forefathers did more than a century ago, using only items that would have been available before the 1840s.

“It’s hard to reach the bottom of a cooking pot with a short-handled spoon when you’re cooking over an open campfire,” Stokes recalled about one of his first camping experiences. To remedy this, he carved his first spoon – a long-handled utensil that could reach the bottom of a flame-licked pot with ease.

Stokes’ hobby blossomed as he continued to carve rugged cookware items such as spoons, forks, mugs, bowls and personal water dippers that campers could hang from their belts, “so that when you went to somebody’s camp, you had a cup,” Stokes explained. He crafted items that could be “used and weren’t to be babied.”

The carver became known to other campers as “Trader Dick” when he started to sell and trade his work. He’s also become famous among families with small children for the baby spoons he makes.

Prices on his work vary depending on the size of each piece and the amount of time it takes to carve. He also sells his wares at local fairs and has won a number of ribbons for his designs over the last several years at the Springfield Fair.

To carve, Stokes uses chisels and knives – all basic hand tools. Once the initial shape of an item is created, he sands it down and then applies soluble oil, that he feels works better than the polyurethane he previously used, to seal and protect the wood.

Instead of cutting down live trees for carving material, Stokes prefers to use trees and limbs that have fallen naturally or scrap lumber.

“Usually I’ll take most of my stuff from loggers,” he said.

And the most interesting form of wood Stokes carves from are burls.

“A burl is caused by injury to the tree,” Stokes explained. The injury forms knots and growths and is one of the Kingman carver’s favorite forms of wood to work with. Using the naturally curved burls, which Stokes often gets from loggers’ scrap wood, he is able to create beautiful pieces with unusual textures and grains.

Stokes removes the bark from the outside of the burl, and hollows out the inside, working with the grain when possible. Depending on the type of piece he’s looking to make, stokes will sometimes sand out the rough bumps on the outer portion of the burl – other times, he leaves the imperfections, adding to the individuality of each piece.

“Each one has its own character,” he said holding up a finished burl bowl. “The grain doesn’t go the same way all the time.”

Stokes continuously sees wood he’s anxious to work with. The type of wood doesn’t necessarily matter, though Stokes prefers to work with hardwoods, it’s the shape that draws him to a piece.

“I’ve gone out hunting for years and never shot anything, but I’ve come out with some nice burls,” he said with a grin. “And up here, somebody’s always cutting down wood.”

The Stokes’ heat their home with wood, and the carver said he finds pieces perfect for making spoons right out of the woodpile.

Stokes’ workshop is located in a shed to the left of the couple’s home. Almost every nook and cranny of the building contains a work in progress – or one soon to be.

Asked about what he gains from carving, Stokes said “It’s a good way to work off frustrations and it teaches you patience. When you run into difficulties, you can’t just fight your way through – you have to work your way through.”

And he never tries to resist what the wood naturally wants to do.

“I try to work with the wood,” he said. “You can always see stuff in it.” Which is a good thing because his wife, Nancy, is always coming up with new items for Stokes to carve. For her kitchen, he has made measuring spoons, a spoon holder and several burl bowls. He even crafted a dipper, adding a wire-mesh screen filter, so she could brew her own herbal tea.

The family dog, Holly, isn’t left out either. She has a burl bowl of her own to hold doggie treats.

Because Stokes uses burls and the natural shapes of all the wood he carves from, no two pieces are ever the same.

“I couldn’t – doing this – make two things alike. … Each [piece] has its own character,” he said.