Carver Brad Elfrink creates characters in wood

When the editor of a New York City nutcracker club's newsletter paid nearly $500 on eBay for a 10-inch wooden Indian that can crack nuts in its mouth, Bradley Elfrink realized that some people are crazy about nutcrackers.

Elfrink carved the nutcracker, continuing a tradition historians at the Nutcracker Museum in Leavenworth, Wash., say began in the 15th century. In the last century, performances of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" ballet have become a Christmas tradition.

Elfrink, a Cape Girardeau resident, has been whittling pieces of wood since he was a boy. He began carving nutcrackers a few years ago after his parents, antique dealers, went on eBay to sell a nutcracker they found.

"I said, I can make those," he recalled.

His first attempt wasn't sturdy enough to crack nuts but sold for $200. He thought he could do better and did. After carving the Indian sold to the newsletter editor, he has added to his works an Uncle Sam, an Old King Cole and a Robin Hood and is working on a policeman.

His nutcrackers all can stand up by themselves without the aid of a doll stand, an unusual ability among carved nutcrackers. Elfrink doesn't paint them because he loves the color of wood.

That is an affection Elfrink has had most of his life. "It's just the love of the wood," he says. "I love the way wood smells ... and I love the color of wood grain."

He is stripping all the paint off the woodwork inside the two Victorian houses he owns on Sprigg Street in Cape Girardeau.

Originally from Bollinger County, Elfrink graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1993 with a degree in commercial art. His minor was in archaeology. He is a lab technician at Rhea Optical in Cape Girardeau,

Before beginning work on a nutcracker he searches for models, often finding what he wants in photographs. Then he picks out a piece of scrap wood. "Believe it or not, what most people use is firewood," he says.

He roughs the shape in with a bandsaw, then uses a hammer and chisel before completing the fine details with a knife or dremel tool. Oak and cherry are his preferred woods to work with because they are so strong.

Each nutcracker has two handles that, when pressed together, exert force at the nutcracker's mouth. "It's got to fit exactly," he says. "I can't tell you how many handles I have thrown away."

Each nutcracker requires 20 to 30 hours of work. Elfrink eventually plans to make molds of his nutcrackers and produce them in quantity in resin. That would allow him to paint them and to lower the price.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182