The nice UPS lady delivered a much-anticipated order this week: spoon carving knives from Pinewood Forge. They arrived securely packaged—two in hard foam and one in a birch bark sheath—and they are absolute beauties.Del Stubbs made, from left to right in the top photo, 1 3/4" Hook Knife, Regular Slojd Knife, and #1 Open Swee
p Knife (for larger spoons and ladles). The handles fit very comfortably in your hand and the blades are extremely sharp!Del studied spoon carving in Sweden with Wille Sundquist, author of a hard-to-find-at-a-decent-price book on Swedish carving, and returned to the states to make his own set of tools.
On his website, you will find tons of links to spoon carvers, techniques, and video tutorials. You can also find a number of videos on YouTube of carvers who start with a log and, with hewing hatchet and knife, make a dinner spoon.
I know exactly what I'll be doing this weekend. ; )
The carved spoons below are photos from Del's website.
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19 comments:
You'll love these knifes. I'm on spoon #27 since I got my set a couple of months ago. Here is a link to photos of a few of my spoons. I should post more photos.
http://tinyurl.com/b7n4lg
Also there is also a Spoon Carving photo pool on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/spooncarving/pool/
Have fun and show us your spoons!
COOL!! Thanks for the links, Will! That's encouraging that you're able to carve so well after only a couple months.
You will also enjoy William Coperthwaite's A Handmade Life (not too expensive.) A class with Bill involves making a curved knife (not as sharp as Del Stubb's), cutting down the tree and carving the spoon, as well as hearing Bill's ethical and philosophical position.
I second, R Francis's recommendation of William Coperthwaite's A Handmade Life. Moving and left want more. Also check out Robin Wood. He lives a handmade life and so kindly shares it with the internets. An inspiration for sure.
http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/
"Ville Sundquist" its Wille but when you say it it sounds like Villy
I hope this is viewable;
http://svtplay.se/v/1371063/oppet_arkiv/traskomakeri__traskedstillverkning__stolmakeri__utan_ljud__1923?sb,k103004,1,f,103007
It begins with a clogmaker then theres a spoonmaker, all from 1923.
Heinrich
Those knives are to die for, Kari. Thanks so much for putting them under my nose. Have you found the book at a reasonable price?
Thanks to those commenting...love the photos and video.
I've got to make a cabinet to house a spoon collection for a friend. I think I need to add at least one spoon to give me a reason to order some knives. He even makes them left-handed (grin).
Cheers --- Larry
Kari
you might try to hunt down a VHS tape as well; of Jogge Sundqvist making spoons and troughs at Country Workshops, 1988. it was done by Taunton Press, but I doubt it was ever converted to DVD. a companion piece to Willie's book. Jogge is Willie's son.
Your craft history lesson today is about connections - it was Coperthwaite who introduced Willie to Drew & Louise Langsner and that's how Drew came to start Country Workshops in 1978. Willie taught the first class. all the students were quite scruffy back then. if your readers are interested, they can see www.countryworkshops.org
I know you know Drew's site.
PF
I have to admit these are kind of cool looking and there is someting about wooden spoons that facinate me. Not sure why.
Do you plan on carving such intricate spoons as the ones displayed here or something a little more simple?
Spoons...Spooning. Mmmm. Another wonderful post. Thanks, Kari
V
VC,
Hook knives are wonderful traditional tools. I was taught to hold the hooks at askew to the grain of the wood for better cutting and ease of control.
I was also told not to use the hook knife upside-down. Well I turned it over One Time and used it like a regular knife to whittle. Well the hook just took a thin slice through a finger.
Be Careful.
Stephen
I have just ordered an open sweep hook knife from Del, and cannot wait to use it. I am in the UK so I may well have to wait a while. I have only handled one of his knives for a couple of minutes and knew instantly that this was one of the best hook knives I have seen.
If you are into spoons check out http://www.bodgers.org.uk/bb/phpBB2/index.php and go to the greenwood crafts forum. This is the public forum of the Association of Polelathe Turners and Green Woodworkers.
All the best Sean
As a non-woodworker, I have to say that these knives are indeed totally gorgeous.
Now, where's my new set of spoons already!
Thank you everyone for the links, suggestions, information and advice!!!
I am the proud owner of several of Dell's knives for flat-plane carving, spoon carving, and kolrosing. They are works of art all on their own. I carve Santa's, Welsh lovespoons, and eating spoons. Dell has made my life a whole lot easier!
Bob Tinsley
Del's stuff is excellent but for my money the knives and gouges at Drew's site countryworkshops.org are the premium spoon and bowl carving tools. I have both. The above site is also great for spoon and bowls carving classes and don't forget drewlangsner.com for glimpses of free edge bowls and just great stuff.
Scrap Wood
Bob, I wished I'd found Del sooner. I looked for nice knives for over a year and finally came across his site on Robin Wood's blog.
Scrap Wood, thanks for the tips--I'll check them out. You can never have too many clamps...or knives!
Hi Kari,
Funny how the web makes all these connections so much easier. My first contact with Del was pre web, we were both interested in pole lathe woodturning, I wrote to him and was told he rarely wrote but I was very pleased to get a reply. I bought some of his early knives and have been a fan ever since.
To expand on Peters connections, Del Learned from Wille and he was a major inspiration to me too, many of us that share this philosophy of making beautiful objects for everyday life owe him a lot.
Hi Kari.
Catching up on blogs after vacation.
I have two of those same knives, and love them. I don't have the open sweep knife, and will be interested to hear which hook you use more.
I've found that I'd often like a left-handed hook knife to go with my righty.
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