Thursday, March 26, 2009

Stone Age-Style Spoon



My first attempt at spoon carving resulted in a piece of dinnerware befitting of Fred Flinstone. Chunky, lumpy, and dino-sized.

In my defense, I didn't have any green lumber so I grabbed—what else?—a gnarly piece of cherry whose grain pattern looked like a Jackson Pollack painting.

Plus it had a few knots.

Nonetheless, I bullheadedly worked on this ornery piece of wood until I sprouted a few blisters on my hand.


During this time, a chunk of dry silver maple soaked in a tub in an attempt to soften the fibers and make it easier to carve.

The second spoon went more smoothly and the straight grained, semi-softened maple was much easier to carve.

I rough shaped both blanks with my new BTF (Best Tool Forever)—a hewing axe—and a slojd knife at my outdoor bench.

The cherry was too hard to cut with hook knives, so I secured the blank in a simple jig: a long v-block with two stops at either end of the workpiece. Then I hollowed out the bowl with spoon gouges. The hook knives worked great for final clean up.

The decorative elements on the maple spoon were carved with a gouge, chip carving knife, and stab knife.

And after finishing the second one, I hope I've moved up to the middle ages.

16 comments:

  1. Your description of the first spoon sounds a lot like me!! They both look great by the way.

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  2. I think you've got a future in this line! They certainly look better than my first effort. You've got a nice flair for decoration.

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  3. Your spoons look great, Kari. That gnarly cherry much have been "fun" as it's bad enough trying to deal with that when you've got a foreplane to remove the wood.

    Cheers --- Larry

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  4. Nice looking spoons. Particularly the decorative elements. Seems as thought you are hooked now!

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  5. What is it about wooden spoons that is so appealing to me?

    These are great Kari!

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  7. Kari - good stuff...spoons like this are usually called 'treen' (if you were unaware) I've got a book somewhere with pics in it of rather pleasant ladels made from fruit woods (apple, pear etc) with big curly handles that so you could hang them from a pine unit in the kitchen...you need to have some nice pine though! - Rob

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  8. Matt,LOL!

    MacktheKnife, that's encouraging to hear since your spoons are gorgeous.

    Larry, yeah, I don't think I'll try carving gnarly cherry again.

    Will, it's really fun to carve them but I should probably take a class to learn how to do it right!

    Shazza, I know what you mean. :o)

    Comment deleted--it was spam.

    Rob, the spoons in your book sound cool. I'm on the lookout now for other design ideas. I also plan to hit a few nearby orchards to see if I can have some of their freshly cut trees.

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  9. Kari, we need to band together and get Robin & Nicola Wood to come over from England and teach a class.

    Let us know if you find some US based classes teaching ax, adze and knife spoon carving.

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  10. Will, better yet, I'd rather travel to England to take a class with Robin and Nicola. ; )

    You can take classes in the states at Country Workshops: http://countryworkshops.org/index.html
    I've heard very good things about it.

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  11. Very nice Kari!
    Loved the DTs on the shelving unit and those spoons you bought were exquisite. I'm sure you'll be making delicate spoons in no time.
    I can't wait till things slow a bit so, I can follow you religiously again!!

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  13. Vic, I miss seeing your face! Hope things slow down for you soon so you can get back in your shop. :o)

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  15. Wilma... if you can get some magnolia, it makes nice spoons. Years ago a magnolia in front of our house went down in a nor'easter. I gave the trunk to a guy up in NH who carves spoons. They looked particularly nice, even though I never got one... sniff

    Gary

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  16. Very nice work. I'm going to attempt such a craft as soon as money isn't so scarce, so i can buy some Carving Tools.

    Handi

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