That ain't bad a tall. I never got into whittling but my Grandpa loved to mess around with it. I worked with a couple friends down in SC years ago who whittled. They would go buy a wood dowel about 1" in diameter and about 18" long and whittle a chain out of it. The wood chains looked rather cool. One of the guys even whittled a round ball out of a piece of wood and then somehow he managed to whittle a smaller round ball inside of the bigger one. I just ain't got the patience to do such things.
No talent,, just fumbling my way through it with assistance from youtube. Thank you though! I have a couple of Flexcut brand carving knives I picked up used.