We did our Shavings and Chips exercise last week. It went well. Here's what I did:

1. Covered two tables with newspaper and sat all kids down and did safety briefing. Johnny (Den Chief) helped with this. The primary things on this are:
- Blood Circle - with knife closed, hold the knife in your hand and outstretch your arm as far as you can. Turn/rotate 360 degrees slowly. This is your blood circle. Do not use a pocketknife if anyone is in your blood circle. At this point we had the boys sit in every other seat around the table so that they were not in each other's blood circle.
2. Reviewed theory of not cutting toward oneself. Demonstrated best practice of cutting/carving on a surface. Carving on your lap is not a good idea because of the damage you can cause...Shared true stories about stiches, missing ends of fingers, and half severed tendons.
3. Demonstrated opening pocket knife and closing with palm of hand. Had each scout do this. This is where parental supervision is good. Some boys will place the sharp side of the knife towards their palms and push. I'm not sure why they do this, but Darwin probably has an explanation for this.
4. Reviewed all the safety point in the Bear book and in the link referenced below. One by one. For example, a good one is not to use the knife blade to pry something, like to remove a nail. You could break off a piece.
5. I provided an overview of how to sharpen a knife and had each scout do this with my and/or parent supervision. I had three shapening stones so that three could sharpen at the same time.
6. I discussed cleaning the knife, especially after making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - the same way you clean any utensils - even the dishwasher; however, you need to oil the knife after cleaning. Demonstrated using light oil to lightly lubricate and clean using a few qtips.
7. We finished up by carving something using a bar of soap. I lucked out and Safeway had Ivory soap 12 pack on sale. This required parent supervision - again, using the wrong side of the blade, cutting toward self, and other boy types of behavior prevail. We carved hearts, ducks, footballs, initials, smily faces, rockets, etc. Stick to the easy. Wash hands when done.
8. I brought a first aid kit, but we didn't use it. I highly recommend it though.
9. With this training and their Whittling Chip oath, which the scouts repeated out loud, they earn their Whittlin Chip patch and card. It's a very cool patch for Cub Scouts - a pocket flap patch. I explained that the Whittling Chip card entitles scouts to use a pocket knife under adult supervision, if approved by parents. It does not allow them to carry a pocket knife on their own. Also, they cannot bring pocket knives to campouts or to Goshen. Once they are Boy Scouts they will earn their Totin Chip, which will entitle them to carry a pocket knife and, probably the most time honored tradition of scout camp, purchase a pocket knife at the camp trading post.

Useful links:

http://www.geocities.com/~pack215/whittlin-chip.html
http://usscouts.org/advance/cubscout/whittlingchip.asp
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/award/award-434.asp

Good luck. Please let me know if you have any questions.