09-09 Warther's Museum

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

Perhaps the most interesting place we toured while in Berlin was Warther's Museum and Knife Factory. "Mooney" Warther was a master wood carver and knife maker. The museum contains his lifetime collection of carvings, primarily of steam locomotives. They are exquisite and perfectly detailed.

Here is a brief excerpt from one of the movies shown during the tour:



All his carvings are wonderful works of art. He carved many locomotives in different hardwoods.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

Then he switched to ebony and ivory.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

Then he carved in ivory alone. (He carved in ivory before it became illegal to export ivory.)

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

He was a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln. He carved the train that carried his body across country for burial in Illinois.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

You can look inside and see Lincoln lying in repose.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

Mooney and his wife loved walking through the Ohio countryside. Over the years they amassed a huge collection of Indian arrowheads. Many are on display on the walls and ceiling of his workshop.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

His wife also collected buttons. These were turned into works of art and displayed much like the arrowheads.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

Mooney worked in a steel factory in his early work years. He carved a working replica of the mill where he worked.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

He first became interested in carving when he found a pocket knife in the road as a boy while tending sheep. A stranger he met at the train station carved a working pair of pliers out of a stick of wood without making any shavings, only use precise cuts. Mooney figured out how to replicate the carving and went on to carve hundreds of thousands of them for children over the years. During the tour his Grandson repeated the feat and gave it to a lady in the audience. She revealed that she had another one at home carved by Mooney when she was a little girl. Mooney once carved the pliers on the Johnny Carson Tonight show in under 10 seconds. He went on the figure out how to make more intricate sets with pliers within pliers. Here is a photo of a set showing the original un-carved block. All the carved pliers will fold back into this same shape.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

He went on to make a masterpiece that looks like a small tree with all the limbs being a set of carved pliers. All these pliers can be closed and folded back into a single block of wood.

From 09-09 Warther's Museum and Knife Factory

While working in the steel mill, Mooney began making knives for his own use and then kitchen knives for his Mother. He ultimately stared making knives full time. His family continues to make wonderful kitchen knives.

It is all quite fascinating to see. Dover, Ohio the home of the Warther Museum is just south of Canton, Ohio and is a definite place you will want to visit if in the area.