‘Lumber Jack’ wood carver comes to Sagamore

by Laura Bednar

After the electric company cut branches away from power lines, the tree in Bonnie Cain’s front yard was left with an off-putting “y” shape. Instead of having the tree ground down to the stump, Cain found someone to create an aesthetically pleasing addition to her property.

Jack Riese, known as “Lumber Jack,” has created woodcarvings for nearly 60 years. He said he was interested in Native Americans and, at age 14, carved a totem pole out of a wooden telephone pole. When a man offered him $200 for the carved pole, he saw potential in carving for other people.

Riese carved totem poles for over 40 years before partnering with fellow carver Pat Holbert. The two lived near each other in Massillon, Ohio, and decided to combine talent and resources. They have worked together for close to 25 years and have a woodshop south of Dalton, Ohio. Riese said they use 20 chainsaws with different bars and grinders depending on the carving and type of tree.

For Cain’s tree, the duo showed up at her North Gannett Road house at 9:30 a.m. and “were done in less than three hours with six chainsaws,” she said

After watching a television show called “Carver Kings,” about wood carvers who create carvings and tree sculptures, Cain researched to find someone to carve her 6-foot-tall tree trunk. She came across LumberJack Chainsaw Art and asked for a carving of an owl sitting on books before changing her mind to an owl with her address number below it.

When a client has an idea for a carving, Riese starts his process.

“You have to have it in your head,” he said.

Sometimes a person may want a specific carving, but the tree isn’t equipped for the idea.

“You talk them through what they really want, but add your ideas,” Riese said, noting that he will sometimes create a sketch of a carving and send it to a client beforehand.

When Cain opted for the address numbers over books, Riese said she needed something to balance it out. The final product is an owl sitting on top of a tree with the address numbers on the front of the trunk. On the side facing the driveway, a smaller owl was carved, sitting in its own hole.

“I love it,” Cain said. “I watched him do the whole thing.”

Cain said she had to coat the carving in urethane after it was completed to provide protection and make the details stand out. She said, “It was worth every bit.”

While Riese previously participated in carving competitions like the Ridgeway World Chain Saw Rendezvous in Pennsylvania, he said Holbert does more on the competition side these days. When it comes to carving requests, you name it, and Riese and Holbert have probably done it. In addition to owls, bears, or totem poles, one of Riese’s larger projects was creating an 18-foot Paul Bunyan with his ox, Babe, whose horns alone were 7 feet long.

Riese said he has carved in hundreds of cities across the United States while his partner has carved in Germany, Austria, and Japan.

Though an avid traveller for the job, Riese’s owl carving in late fall of 2021 brought him to Sagamore Hills for the first time. A neighbor caddy corner from Cain saw him working and asked for carvings on two of the trees in his backyard.

Riese said word of mouth is usually how he gets business.

“There are more carvers than there used to be, so we just have to keep up quality,” he said. ∞