HATS!

Whenever whittling figures that have a hat with a wide brim there is at least one decision to make right off.

The brim on this State Patrol hat is wide, and as you can see, there will be quite a bit of wood to be whittled off if you decide to whittle the figure out of one block of wood.  The first decision is: whittle the hat in one piece or two?  In this first example I decided in one piece.

Here's an example of a cowboy with a hat that also has a wide brim.  I decided to whittle the cowboy with a "conehead", and the then do the brim separate.  This is a two part figure.

The "conehead" part of the cowboy becomes the top part of the hat.   By doing this piece in two parts I was able to use a much smaller block of wood, eliminate the need to whittle off a whole bunch of wood, and complete the project faster.  Cheaper, easier, and faster; what more does one want?