Spoon in Sheoak

[ZDP-189]

Three years ago, I was in Australia huddled up by a romantic woodfire with my missus and she handed me a lump of sheoak to burn. Seeing the gorgeous woodgrain, I pinched it and it has sat on my woodshelf in the workshop ever since. That is until I recently bought a Frosts Mora hook knife and decided to give it a go. This is the result:

The light doesn't really give the woodgrain justice.

The big bowl makes it balance nicely on the pot-hook.

Here it is shown against a professionally made spoon/ladle I found later in my kitchen drawer.

I much prefer the other spoon's neck; my spoon is too chunky and needs lightening up and scooping out more. I plan to follow the rim back and then carve out.

The other big problem I had was getting the inside of the bowl smooth. Does anyone know how to do that?

Other constructive criticisms and suggestions would also be gratefully received.

 

[ZDP-189]

Would a mod please fix the typo in the thread title?

 

[stevesteve]

Pretty spoon (both the shape and the wood.

And yes I did open the post to look for the spook but I was glad I did

Chers,
Steve

 

[forestwalker]

Nice spoon.

My spoons often are much heavier than the professional ones I see. But mine last even under some abuse, which I see as a a plus. Or perhaps I am just a crude and coarse person, and make my spoons to match...

 

[ZDP-189]

Thanks for the compliments. I have been working on the bowl and stem a bit just now and it's becoming more elegant, like the other spoon.

 

[Matt Weir]

Good thing you didn't lob it on't fire - very nice work.

 

[Toddy]

Would a mod please fix the typo in the thread title?

Consider it done , cool title as it was though

Your sheoak spoon is really good I do like the hook end idea.
I sometimes think we're out own hardest critics

atb,
Toddy

 

[ZDP-189]

Thanks Toddy, I gave it a bit of a do-over and this is the final result:

 

[Tye Possum]

Nice spoon! I like the hooked handle, makes it look very elegant. I hope the spoons I eventually make are half as nice as that one.

 

[craeg]

Simply beautiful mate. Really nice work! How long have you been carving?

 

[The Cumbrian]

Before you critisise yourself for such a good spoon, check out my spatula:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35873

That's what I ended up with when I tried to make a spoon.

Cheers, Michael.

 

[helixpteron]

That is a very nice spoon, the grain is really distinctive.

 

[Tubbyfraser]

Very, very nice spoon!

I just carved my first one yesterday from a piece of stick my crazy dog toby fetched whilst at Loch Ken ob a canoeing trip. A mate rough carved it into a blank for me and I finished it yesterday afternoon whilst it was chucking it down outside. I was right chuffed wuth it 'til I saw yon masterpiece.

 

[robin wood]

I think this is a lovely spoon, the wood is gorgeous too. I would be interested to know where the professionally made one came from. I have quite a few Russian spoons that have a similar deep bowl but different handles. Spoons like this are excellent for soup where you slurp off the side of the spoon but not so good for porridge or meusli as your upper lip can't get into the bowl to clean it off. For those uses a shallower bowl is better.

 

[ZDP-189]

http://www.chabatree.com/en/

 

[ZDP-189]

That was where the commercial one came from.

 

[brancho]

Thats a very nice looking spoon.

 

[scallywag]

I'm officially in love with your spoon!

 

[Eqmiami]

Great looking spoon. Can you identify the scientific name of it? Just want to make sure it's the same one we have here in Saudi. I want to use all this sheoak but wanna make sure it's the same one used in other people's work.

Also, how hard/difficult was the wood to work with as I've heard it can be very very hard.

 

[humdrum_hostage]

What are there loads of old threads being brought back to life at the moment?

Nice spoon though. Its amazing how much better a slight change in detail can make something look. Worth the revisit!