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California Woodworker Celebrates the United States by
Replicating Important Historic Documents
June 25, 2004
East Petersburg, Pa: Bill Thurlow of
Fontana, CA, wanted to encourage others to read one of
the defining documents of American history. With little
experience using a scroll saw, Bill decided to cut the
words of the Declaration of Independence from ½ maple
wood. The Declaration of Independence is one of the
most important documents we have, he said. It's the
birth certificate of the United States, and I wanted
people to read it.
After more than 580 hours over a span of eight years,
Bill completed his wooden replica of the Declaration of
Independence, four times the size of the original
document, and has received a great deal of attention and
admiration from thousands. To accomplish the brilliant
replication, Bill photocopied and enlarged the
Declaration of Independence, glued the paper enlargement
to ½ maple and cut each of the 1,356 words, as well as
hundreds of punctuation marks, exactly as they were
written and then sanded the paper off of each piece. For
the 4,316 letters like o and a with inside holes,
Bill drilled through the center of the letters before
cutting the wood. He used 763 saw blades for the
project.
When asked how difficult the project was, Bill said that
it was incredibly hard, but he enjoyed the scrolling
process and is especially happy with the end result.
It's all worth it, he said. In March 2004, Bill's work
was exhibited at the Ramona Country Carvers 25th annual
woodcarving show in San Jacinto, Ca. It created quite a
stir among the almost 2000 people that came through our
show. There was a crowd around it almost the entire
show, said Ramona Country Carver Duane Laxen. It's as
good, if not better, than any best of show I've seen in
past years.
The piece was also a highlight at the California Hawaii
Elks Association Convention in Ontario in May. When the
piece is not on display, it resides in Bill's home, and
will not be for sale. No amount of money could buy
that, he said. Bill's most recent scrolling
accomplishment is the Gettysburg Address. Replicated at
the original size that Abraham Lincoln wrote it (17 ½ x
13), Bill's Gettysburg Address was done using the
smallest blade and took nine months to complete.
Fox Chapel Publishing Co., Inc. is one of the nation's
leading resources for woodworking books and magazines,
and employs nearly 30 people from its restored 19th
century headquarters in East Petersburg , PA. Fox Chapel
publishes two magazines:
Wood Carving Illustrated and
Scroll Saw Workshop; more than 200 book
titles; and distributes more than 1,000 woodworking
books from other publishers around the world. Their web
site is
www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.
For more information, contact:
Mark Vogel, Marketing Manager
717-560-4703, ext. 33
markv@FoxChapelPublishing.com
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