Through this experiment I discovered my favorite way to make spoons. I wiped off all the excess oil and then finished them off with Walrus Oil Wood Wax for some extra protection. Literally took me minutes to make and it left such a great finish on the insides of the bowls.
I’ll begin with a serving spoon from a fairly straight blank. Start with a clear piece of fresh wood, the diameter a little greater than the intended spoon’s width. Split the piece down its length with a froe or hatchet. (Strike the froe with a wooden club, never metal.) Hew away the inner flat face, removing the tree’s pith ; leaving this bit in results in radial cracks or splits, ruining the spoon. Next I hew away the bark side so I can see where I’m going.
The bottom of the bowl should dip down below the line of the handle, and the handle should be either straight or curved downward slightly. At this point, it is possible to make the handle too thin and http://blogozine.net delicate, but beginning spoon carvers are more likely to err on the fat side. Shape the handle so that it’s comfortable in your hand — the layout lines are a visual guide, but trust your hands, too.
Soak it in water between sessions and keep it wrapped up in a plastic bag to retain moisture. Note that a pre-dried piece of hardwood will be harder to carve, but a lot less likely to crack too – both whilst you’re working on your spoon and when it’s completed. Indeed, with long and cold evenings ahead, whittling a spoon around a campfire is especially enticing.
Tuck it against your palm, and your thumb provides the leverage to pull the tool into the cut. The knife slices across the bowl most often, except when you are refining some shapes. These tools come in left- and right-handed versions. I mostly use the righty, but there are places and times when the left-handed version is helpful. “These spatulas are ideal for mixing anything, from beans to cake mixture,” Peten Wood Artisan Sculptors tell us with obvious pride. They carve the spatulas by hand from manchiche wood, a Guatemalan hardwood that is burnished red by nature, with the grain forming myriad patterns.
You can cap the ends with candlewax, which will help it retain moisture and dry out slowly. Now finish time… I used some Walrus Oil Cutting Board oil and just set them off to soak in that for a bit. I’m still pretty new to spoon carving, so learning all the nuances with the grain direction is a super fun process.
The hatchet is a small, double-bevel affair, not like the large single-bevel tool I prefer for joinery work. We’re cutting shapes here, not flat surfaces, so the double-bevel tool allows you to work both convex and concave areas. Ideally, spoon carving is a green woodworking craft. You can experiment with a great range of local woods, usually free.
Also, going through your pile of firewood, you can come across some interesting findings too. If the spoon is thick enough, you can drill a hole through the end and thread in some spoon carving nice paracord, or a piece of leather, as the finishing touch. It ended up using it for the fourth spoon earlier this year, and I was happy with the result… until I lost it!
It’s not as shouty as cherry and walnut, warmer than maple and birch. The denseness of the wood results in utensils that feel reassuringly heavy. The complications of knots and twisty grain make any spoon you can tease out feel like a real achievement.
It is best to shape the inside of the bowl first, then the handle, and finally the out- side of the bowl. That way, you will always have parallel surfaces to clamp securely in the vise as you shape the spoon. Secure your stock in the vise and hold your gouge in both hands. Good handles are usually no more than 3/4″ wide and are often thinner.
Dry it out and use it for firewood – birch bark burns especially well, and you’ll love the sweet smell too. We are a fair-trade store specialising in natural handmade products for the home. We hope you have found everything that you needed today, and if not let us know. We are always sourcing new products, and creating new content for you. I have not tried so many types, but generally, hardwoods, not conifers, and fruit trees seem to be among my favourites. Draw your spoon with a pen or pencil on the top of the spoon.
One of our favorite sub-niches in this space is hand-carved wooden spoons. While we don’t sell in this space we just love how well they photograph and sell in other’s shops. A day-to-day spoon is an especially handy item to make, and it’s the perfect way to begin your journey down the whittling wormhole. But it can be a lot of fun making spatulas, butter knives, ladles, and even diminutive salt spoons.
Most wine and whiskey barrels are made from white oak. Making carved spoons from the barrel staves makes for a perfect marketing opportunity as whiskey and wine barrel products are very popular. Sawn Spoon Blanks delivered to your door, and ready to carve! Perfect for those times when you can’t access any local wood, or when you’re not fully confident in your axe work. If you want to carver more than one spoon, or if you’ve already used the provided blank, we also offer pre-cut lime wood spoon blanks.
Whittle very slowly and feel with your fingers, until you have roughly half a centimetre of wood left at the bottom of each hollow. Be careful not to make it too thin – you’ll be using the Dremel® soon and you’ll need some wood left in your spoon to work with. Hazen Alward is a multi-skilled craftsman and craft enthusiast that had always worked with metal and masonry until finding out how much you could do with green wood. He also teaches green woodworking at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Each student can expect to carve a pair of chopsticks, a few different cooking spoons, and start on an eating spoon if they wish.
Our best luck finding it has been with folks who produce wood slabs as these trees have been grown around the US in urban settings. Butternut is one of our favorite little known woods. It has a creamy brown/orange color that rivals black walnut and is incredibly enjoyable to work with. http://blogozine.net/best-wood-carving-tools/where-do-i-start-sylva-spoon/ The only downside of black walnut is on the expensive side for a domestic wood. You can often expect to pay prices that are double what you might pay for maple, cherry or oak. Blanks are packaged and sent out green, wrapped in compostable plastic and bundled in wood shavings.