First and second attempt at spoon carving

[Captaincrash]

After seeing several wonderful spoons on here, I thought it was time I tried my hand at it. Both are from my lovely little birch tree that was trimmed back from overhead wires last winter.

Both carved with a homemade spoon knife and small homemade whittling knife. I used a small detail gouge for the relief on one spoon. Sanded but no oil finish at this point.
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[Pignut]

Great work. Look lovely!

Any pics of the tools as they sound very interesting

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[crosslandkelly]

First and second time, Wow. Great work. What wood did you use?

 

[Tat2trev]

wow awsome work mate keep it up

 

[John Fenna]

Awesomely good for first and second goes!

 

[Two Socks]

Great work. Especially for first attempts!

 

[Captaincrash]

White birch from my backyard, here are a few pics of the tools I used.

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[Two Socks]

I really like that spoon-knife! I wish I had the skill to make that! It must feel great to use a tool you completely made yourself!

 

[Pignut]

Great work

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[Earthgirl]

They are lovely...

See something else I've learnt today, birch make nice little spoons.. thanks...

 

[Kepis]

Lovely job, especially the one on the left, might have to "borrow" that idea

 

[Stringmaker]

Nice work, I really like that little gouge, is it a specific size/type/

 

[Captaincrash]

Lovely job, especially the one on the left, might have to "borrow" that idea

Thanks for all the encouragement!! By all means feel free to "Borrow" that idea Kepis, I'm honored!

 

[Captaincrash]

Nice work, I really like that little gouge, is it a specific size/type/

Its a 5/16" Bent gouge available in a set of detail carvers from Lee Valley Tools

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=31103&cat=1,130,43332,43334&ap=1

 

[Hugo]

Nice work, well done.
I also like the tooled finish on the spoon on the left.

 

[Stringmaker]

Its a 5/16" Bent gouge available in a set of detail carvers from Lee Valley Tools

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=31103&cat=1,130,43332,43334&ap=1

Thanks for the link.

Did you carve both spoons "freehand" or did you use a vice at all?

My reason for asking is that to really use gouges properly requires some form of anchoring for the workpiece?

 

[Captaincrash]

Carved freehand while sitting in my living room recliner much to the dismay of my lovely wife!! The gouge is a palm tool and very controllable and very little pressure involved if its nice and sharp. I've used this tool hundreds of times and have never had any issues or mishaps.

Here are a couple pictures to show the size of the tool and the way it's used during carving. I hope this helps answer your questions.

 

[Stringmaker]

Excellent, thanks.

I can feel another look at that palm gouge set coming on...

 

[addo]

Nice work captain, great first spoons and I like the detail work idea.

 

[Stringmaker]

One last question!

Is that gouge used as a twisting cut or just a straight push?