My kids are 6 and 8 and they're both able to handle the Speedball lino
cutters just fine--we haven't even had any good pokes yet! (Now mom, that's
another story, although it's more like "wearing the fingers to the bone"
when I get on a good carving jag...).

I've recommended the PZCut rubber for "serious" carving, but one time I
ordered huge sheets of "grey stuff" (Soft-Kut) from Dick Blick thinking it
would be similar. It is too soft for doing fine detail work, but my kids
have great success with it for their own purposes. They usually make their
designs by inscribing lines to make a "negative" line drawing, rather than a
raised stamp image. It's about $8.00 (plus s/h) for a 12x18 sheet, which you
can easily cut down into a lot of 2x3 or 4x6 blocks for kids to work with.

For those of you who have fairly large groups and want an economical way to
get them started on stamp carving, Dick Blick offers a "soft cut" classroom
kit with 24 4x6 carving blocks, 24 handles, an assortedment of nibs, and a
tube of block printing ink. The list price is $77 for this assemblage, which
is a little over $3/kid if you've got that size of a group. You can also
order "parts" separately in the quantity you need--Dick Blick does have
really good prices if you need to order more than a couple of things (like,
$0.42 for basic calligraphy pen holders, a 12-pack of #1 liners for $14).
They're online at www.dickblick.com (I love the way their website offers
link suggestions along the lines of "if you're interested in this, you may
also be looking for . Makes it very easy to go from looking at carving
blocks to looking at ink or cutters.) Finally, they offer thinner sheets
that can be cut with scissors and mounted on wood blocks--similar to Kraft
foam stamps, but it looks like it's rubber and so should probably ink up a
little better. "Ccreate a stamp" is one way they package it, although it
looks like their "flexi-cut plates" are made of the same stuff, only larger.

La Chola

> How would you work it in to summer bible
> > school or Sunday school class. How old do you think they should be
> > before they are allowed carving tools? I was thinking
> > 14-15....depending upon the child.