Y'all and your spoons! (CONTEST INSIDE)

[defaultuser]

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

This is so true! Del Stubbs and Mary are awesome people. Del's knives are top notch, top quality and top usability.

Here's a link to their website for some reading.

I will post my entry soon...my hands are too sore to do any additional typing

 

[bmgillies]

This is my first attempt at carving a spoon.
Started with a piece of branch from the neighbours front yard, began roughing it out with my Harsey Hunter and Vic Soldier

At this point I had to head inside, as it was starting to rain and my Dad was yelling at me. Something about woodworking in my school uniform

At this point it looked like this:

Starting to gouge out the bowl with my Soldier and a Wenger Classic

Gouged out the bowl and thinned down the handle, sanded then finished with wet&dry

Finished spoon with all tools used:

Glamour shot:

bmgillies - proudly representing the younger generation

 

[spyder10]

This was my first attempt at making a spoon. Just notice that I wrote the wrong username. Sorry but I go by that name on a couple other forums and forgot

Started with an Estwing hatchet on a branch I had collected earlier.

If anyone know what type of tree this is, I would like to know.


After roughing the shape with the hatchet, I moved on to a little Winchester slipjoint cheapie that I tend to EDC.

After carving with the knife, I sanded the entire spoon with a couple rocks I found outside. The spoon was rubbed with mineral oil and left it in a plastic bag in the sun.

The final product.

I ended up getting the angle of the spoon wrong but I think it turned out alright.

 

[defaultuser]

Here's my entry for this awesome contest! The real prize is participating, and seeing all the nice wood creations people come up with. Keep it up, guys!

I started with those maple pieces harvested at a friend's place a month or so ago - it has been kept in my freezer since so the wood was still green
and plenty easy to work with.

BEFORE pic:

One piece has been split already and I splitted the other using the "infamous mora batonning technique" (tm):

This gave me a pretty interesting piece with a huge brown knot. Unfortunately, the knot turned out to be too rotten to make a serviceable spoon:

I then started to work on the other three pieces - two of then being the perfect size for a cooking spoon (sautés, stews, sauces, etc), and the third
one (the other piece I splitted earlier) being too small for a spoon, will become some sort of spatula:

I ended up with a decorative spoon (still to be finished), a spatula, and two cooking spoons, one of which has been finished up to 600 grit and given
a mineral oil finish to better show the wood grain. AFTER mandatory pic:

Glamour shots of my entry spoon:

Thanks for this killer contest and I really hope to see some spoons made by Mr. Kevin Jon Schlossberg himself, sooner than later!!!

Pierre

 

[bmgillies]

The real prize is participating, and seeing all the nice wood creations people come up with.

Thanks for this killer contest and I really hope to see some spoons made by Mr. Kevin Jon Schlossberg himself, sooner than later!!!

:thumbup:+1

 

[Mark J]

Wow, this is a cool thread. You guys are getting me excited about making one myself, although knowing my woodworking skills, I'd have trouble whittling a stick out of a branch. Nice work everyone, and thanks for the contest Spark!

- Mark

 

[Spark]

I found a downed black oak branch in the park nearby and went at it with my chainsaw. The branches were pretty thick but I sectioned a couple pieces and brought them home:


Pretty big knots in them, but we'll see if they work.

 

[patsknives]

Great thread ...even better contest, motivating price, I am soooo in.

First of all I had to make a knife that would be good for making spoons. I could af course buy one simple from Mora... maybe sometimes in the future. Today I have made this simple one in 1/2 hour. Funny, quite ugly but it works great :thumbup:

I'm away with my friends at my father's weekend house. Lots of wood, a few knives and a camera
See you on monday

 

[Spark]

All the oak I cut cracked pretty badly when it dried

 

[defaultuser]

Hey Spark! Try maple, apple, or birch...those woods are ideal. Working on green wood is also much easier, and it shoudn't crack when the spoon is carved. Have a look here, where Dell Stubbs discuss "spoon crooks" and wood selection.

Happy carving!

 

[sadiejane]

All the oak I cut cracked pretty badly when it dried

be happy
been working on an oak spoon and its one huge pita to get dug out,
worked on it for two hrs yesterday. at least another two+ hours or more to go,
ive been keeping in a plastic bag with an oily(walnut) cloth in between digging at it

 

[never too sharp]

I worked on these while in the Adirondaks with my family.
A long search for some seasoned maple that was still in the trees yeilded this:

first spoon roughed out:

second, um, spoon roughed out.

Carving tools:

Spalted snake:

Returned home saturday and finished them with Block Oil(for cutting boards and what not).

The best part is, I was fortunate enough to carve them while sitting here:

 

[giant1]

I worked on these while in the Adirondaks with my family.

The best part is, I was fortunate enough to carve them while sitting here:

NTS, the spoons are very cool............

But that spot is just beautiful :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[never too sharp]

Thanks, man, it really is beautiful up there. We rented a cottage on a private little cove(Echo Bay) on Star Lake. Quiet, peaceful and serene, and my 4 year old son enjoyed having the little sandy beach all to himself.

 

[defaultuser]

The post #59 above by unky_gumbi got me interested in trying a tea bath to stain the wood. A quick Internet search gave me some guidelines to achieve this: basically, make "strong tea" (proportion: 10 dark tea bags in a quart of water), apply an even coat, let the tannins work overnight.

Well, it didn't work for me. No noticeable effect on the wood after following the recipe. Maybe it's the type of wood (green maple)? So, I ended up leaving the spoon all night in my tea solution. Left it to dry almost 24 hours after that. Here's the result, with a comparison with my contest entry spoon, which I left "natural". Both had a quick wipe of mineral oil.

All in all, I like the result. I won't say all my spoons will receive this treatment from now on, but maybe some, depending on the look I want to achieve.

 

[carspidey]

you should try thai tea...

way darker

 

[unky_gumbi]

The post #59 above by unky_gumbi got me interested in trying a tea bath to stain the wood. A quick Internet search gave me some guidelines to achieve this: basically, make "strong tea" (proportion: 10 dark tea bags in a quart of water), apply an even coat, let the tannins work overnight.

Well, it didn't work for me. No noticeable effect on the wood after following the recipe. Maybe it's the type of wood (green maple)? So, I ended up leaving the spoon all night in my tea solution. Left it to dry almost 24 hours after that. Here's the result, with a comparison with my contest entry spoon, which I left "natural". Both had a quick wipe of mineral oil.

All in all, I like the result. I won't say all my spoons will receive this treatment from now on, but maybe some, depending on the look I want to achieve.

Your results were more dramatic then mine, I think it may be because of the green wood. If we were to let them dry out before giving them the tea bath they may soak up more if the tannins giving a pronounced change.
I tried the tea bath because I am looking for an all natural dye for the sheaths I make, so if you have any ideas shoot me a message.:thumbup:

 

[omniviking]

Yep, green wood need to dry some to stain, maybe old coffee would work too, if you want a dark finish.

Also, soaking wood with water "tea or coffee" will raise the grain of the wood. this will need some final sanding to reach a nice smooth surface.

Pat

 

[Shoki]

Ok, I've seen many-a-spoon in this forum and some beautiful entries in this thread so I know I don't have a prayer of winning but I've always wanted to give spoonsmithing a try.
I started with my MMHW DV8 and a Mora Clipper and some unidentified wood.

I carved by my fire pit into the night and took some really poor in-progress pics.

Started fresh this morning, this time remembering my username and date.

A couple of sand-papering hours later, I had made some decent progress.

Once I was satisfied with the shape (tired of sanding), I rubbed my spoon down with some olive oil and stuck it in the oven on low heat for about 20 minutes. Here's the end-result:

Moose-knuckle shot:

W&SS logo

And finally, the testing phase:

If I make another one, I think I'll invest in a scoop knife. Carving and sanding the bowl was a nightmare.

 

[unky_gumbi]

I bought the Lee Valley hook knife for mine made things much easier, the first one I did mainly with a regular knife and wasn't happy with the result, so I borrowed a friends hook knife to clean it up. That was enough to convince me to buy a hook knife.