Y'all and your spoons! (CONTEST INSIDE)

[omniviking]

Green wood carves easier than dead fall limbs. Fruit wood and some hard woods work good if you are making one to use. think edible, Sassafras makes some wild spoons.

for finishing your utensil, try mineral oil like you would on a wooden cutting board. OR.. go to a hardware type store and see if you can find some wooden salad bowl finish, safe to eat from.

To carve the "bowl" of the spoon, a small gouge type chisel is a hand tool, push it away from body and don't gut yerself.

Heck, sandpaper is a hand tool, if ya do it hand.

maybe I will have time and energy to try this, the hardest part for me is the camera end of the deal.

Pat

 

[Ridge-Runner]

Well got the rough spoon shape cut out. Now I need to go and buy the proper knife to carve out the bowl. No place local to buy one so guess I will look online. Think bens backwoods has them.

Got my hook and carving knife from Pinewood Forge. Dude is top notch and so are his knives.

 

[myright]

I like this thread!

I have never once attempted to carve a spoon so this will be fun. I've got to get my butt out and find some good wood to use today! Thanks Spark.

 

[revolverman357]

I just got mine going, spent 2 hours to find out the bowl was full of worm grooves.
Now I have to start over.

 

[GingivitisKahn]

Apparently I'm playing. Decided to try to make my first wooden spoon ... with my Becker BK-2. So here it is in excruciating detail. The spoon isn't pretty but it is functional and the only tools used were:

* Becker BK-2
* Beatin' stick
* Flat chunk o' stump for anvil
* Sand paper

Started by chopping this bit of dead silver maple out of my stick pile. I had a bad angle on it so that's why the chopped end looks as though crazed beavers have been gnawing on it.

Scored above the knot.

Ruh roh. Now I know why the branch died. Looks like the worms have had their way with this one. Continue or no... Ah what the heck.

Batonned the branch into mangeagable sections.

Debarked and roughed what was left.

A bit closer to the final shape...

Tried to figure out how to make the spoony bit. Getting there...

Top down of final product. Wow - my camera is not good.

Slightly better picture of the final product. Had to go back and clean up some weird spots and take a marginally better picture.

Ok - this is not a potential beauty contest winner. Maybe it's a ... character piece. Yeah that's it.

Lessons learned:
1. Leave more wood on the end for a handle and don't trim down to the final shape until the piece is more nearly done.
2. I've got woodworking blades but the BK-2 is fine for detail work (even if my details kind of suck ).
3. Ants like wood shavings.
4. My camera really stinks.

 

[unky_gumbi]

Ok I have started my contest spoon, and its big. I have plans but I am not divulging them till its done. I will add to this post as I go, but I have less then a week to finish it up.

Here are my starting pictures

the piece of nice wood broke so I cut down one of the small box elder trees beside the house that are crushing the eve trough.
Tools
Cheap folding saw
My KH Khukhuri
My homemade bushcraft knife
A little EDC fixed blade I made
Not in picture
Lee Valley Hook Knife
assorted sandpaper
3/16 drill bit
Bow for drill bit

With a little work

I have a fair amount of shaping to do yet but I got rained out so I wont be back at it till tomorrow. As for tonight I am wrapping the handles on both the khukhuri and EDC in leather.

15/08/2010 spoon update

Better then a post it note, its me

 

[kyhunt]

Mines a work in progress. Used a production Fiddleback Forge Recluse and a Case medium stockman. Needs more work this week.This is also my first spoon ever.









Just for note since I didn't show the wood with the bark on. I'm not interested in particapating in the contest. I just wanted to make a spoon.

 

[the lone gunman]

Heres my entry: Started with this;

Roughed it out with my BK2

Ended up with this;

Dont have a spoon knife ,I used Mora and Schrade mostly, Stones were used to smooth and sand. More like a serving spoon I suppose.
Great looking spoons you guys !

 

[giant1]

Great thread, book marked so I can follow the progress :thumbup:

 

[Big Chris]

Just came across this thread this morning. Sounds like tons of fun. I'm heading out to my folks place int he country later and will have to take some woods tools with me. They just had a Birch tree fall last week during some storms, it should make for some great spoon attempts. I have a few hook and crooked knives I have carved spoons with before, but may try to burn the bowl in one this time. This is a great contest Spark, and some great prizes to boot.

 

[beau5278]

I saw this in my email a couple days ago but just got a chance to check it out,I'm sure I can come up with a piece of wood,I'm just not sure about my carving skills.I like the lone gunmans idea with that black birch,I have plenty of that around.I'll be back:thumbup:

 

[sumoj275]

Sweet deal.. I was alreted by Stjones about this and I just read through it. I am going to be looking for a piece of wood and get started. I think it will e fun, not that I have any talent to do it LOL.

 

[untamed]

Not really entering but I'm really looking forward to more. And the recent ones aren't too shabby either :thumbup:

I was thinking though if I was the only one who did this: I've never made a spoon but growing-up in the province on this side of the world, I made some slingshot "Y" posts and some fugly tops when I was a kid. Aside from a knife and sandpaper, I used broken glass to smooth and rough-shape the wood. Of course having a carving set would make life so much easier.

Gloves optional. . . Ok, they're now required! I guess we did some things back then the safety police and PC-crowd would have fits right about now.

 

[hushnel]

Calling it done. I really don't use spoons often so I made this one primarily to measure out coffee. I look forward to seeing what everybody comes up with.

 

[Shore08]

Man, there are some great looking spoons in here. Good job folks!

 

[carspidey]

yes... there are some nice spoons here and some really bad ones I am just playing...

good job guys... keep it coming... i'll show mine later too...

 

[beau5278]

I made this one today for practice and to see how long it would take,I wish I would have documented this one but I was using dry black birch and I wasn't sure I could finish it without it breaking,it was pretty dry.I freehanded the whole thing from the sister block to the one in the picture and the only tools I used were a couple of knives a rasp and sandpaper.I'm going to do another and document it but I need to get over to the mountain for a green piece of wood.The thought crossed my mind of making one using nothing but a Leatherman Wave but I think I'll save that for another day.

 

[DM Mills]

Nice work, folks.

Fun thread.

 

[unky_gumbi]

So my spoon is done, with 3 days to spare before surgery. I went with a large spoon at 12.5" long and a 4" bowl. I was going to make it a slotted spoon, but my drill bit and bow idea just wasn't working out so I skipped it. My carving up the handle didn't work out to well either, but I do like the leaf at the end of the handle. Is it good enough to win? I doubt it, but I had fun making it so that was more than worth the price of admission. Finish is a combination of lots of sanding, soaking in strong tea, a bit of scorching over a fire, tung oil and beeswax. Now to make a matching salad fork

Thanks for the contest Sparks, its been a blast:thumbup:
WIP pictures are here

 

[OldPhysics]

Good Lord! I've never whittled a spoon that looked anything LIKE these/those. Clearly, my spoon-making skills are sub-par.