Arnprior wood carver creates life-sized hockey skate

Arnprior’s Ron Hanniman can turn a piece of wood into just about anything.

The 77-year-old wood carver recently completely what he describes as his most difficult piece of art to date; a life-sized hockey skate with a hockey player inside, carved out of a single block of wood.

"I wanted to carve something that's Canadian, and I wanted to do a hockey player or something of that nature, and I wanted it to be a little bit different,” Hanniman tells CTV News.

“It's tupelo wood from South Carolina, and it came in one big piece, and I start carving on it eight months ago.”

Hanniman says he worked on the project for two to three hours every day, finishing in mid-December. The entire piece of art was carved by hand.

Incredibly, Hanniman says he only took up the hobby of wood carving about 15 years ago, with no prior experience in woodworking.

He credits has craftiness to a previous career working with his hands in event set-up. Now, he says he’s able to sculpt anything and everything.

"I'd wake up in the middle of the night thinking of something, and then I'd write it down. and then I'd have to do it. And that's what got me into carving,” he said.

Hanniman spends most of his time carving in his workshop at home in Arnprior, but on Tuesday and Thursday mornings he does it at the local Men’s Shed in Braeside, where he now teaches others the craft.

The Arnprior-McNab-Braeside Men’s Shed is a social club providing senior men a space to come together, centred around woodworking.

It recently relocated to a new location in Braeside and has incurred about $4000 in expenses during the move.

Being a space dear to Hanniman, he has decided to donate the hockey skate to the Men’s Shed to be auctioned off, to help offset the moving costs.

"You think you're with a bunch of brothers and you're a younger person again, because you talk men stuff, and it's really unique that way,” he says.

Hanniman is hoping to get $2000 for the skate.

Despite his talents, he says his work is not for sale, which would turn his passion into a job.

Instead, Hanniman creates new works of art, often for family members, taking inspiration from nature.

“I do a lot of hummingbirds that I give to cancer patients,” he adds, after overcoming cancer himself.

After spending the past eight months on the hockey skate, there’s no rest for Hanniman, who already has plans for his next project.

“Next project is going to be a tree frog sitting on a gerbera stem. The tree frog is going to be on it and there is a daisy flower on it, and then with water drops coming off it to look like if he's hiding under there, using it as an umbrella in the rain.”