Spoons from diverted wood

[dancan]

Normally most of the wood I work with ends up like this ,

but after joining this forum I have decided to divert a few pieces from each job and try my hand at carving a few
spoons so here are a few .

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http://s464.photobucket.com/albums/rr6/madouesse/Spoons/?action=view&current=100_0228.jpg">

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More spoons here http://s464.photobucket.com/albums/rr6/madouesse/Spoons/

 

[Biker]

Sorry don't believe you carved those, they must have grown like that naturally and you're foisting them on us as being made.

Pull the other one mate! They're far too nice to have been shaped by the hand of man.

Love the one with the double-ender spoon but the ladle type beside it in the first spoon picture is just gorgeous!

Mental note to self:- Quit any thoughts of spoon carving cos' whatever I whittle out won't be even close to this fellas. :togo:

 

[dancan]

Sorry don't believe you carved those, they must have grown like that naturally and you're foisting them on us as being made.

Pull the other one mate! They're far too nice to have been shaped by the hand of man.

Thanks for the kind words .
I have found plenty of inspiration on this site from spoons to quite a few other things so I think I'll be busy for a while !
I must admit that I did use a power tool when making these , the chainsaw when cutting the trees , all hand work after that .

 

[milius2]

They're lovely! Well done mate!
Do you make them from dry or wet wood?

 

[Waldganger]

great work mate!

 

[Asa Samuel]

Utterly beautiful! Well done

 

[Ph34r]

awesome work!

 

[dancan]

They're lovely! Well done mate!
Do you make them from dry or wet wood?

I started making spoons a couple of months ago , the first ones were dry , this one is my first one out of pine as a test .




I carved a few more from some year old beech that I had milled into 2x6 (very dry and hard) but the latest spoons have been from yellow birch and stripped maple .
The striped maple has been the nicest to work with because it carves like clear pine wet or dry .

First to the latest with a couple of inbetweens .





Many thanks to those that posted pictures and shared tips .

 

[mattburgess]

They are lovely! The side profiles of the first few pics are really good.

 

[TJRoots]

they're stunning, i reckon i've got a fair few years of practice left before i can carve anything quite like that

ATB
TJ

 

[Paul_B]

What do you do with all your spoons? As nice as they are have you considered trying something else for variety? I just have visions of a very large cutlery drawer full of wooden spoons, kind of out of scale to the rest of your kitchen.

Good work though, keep it up as I think you have some interesting designs there.

(Note to self - need some wooden spoons, must take up carving.)

 

[SOAR]

Nice spoons there! makes a change saving the wood rather than chipping it, if your like me you'll be checking out every crook in a branch before it goes to the chipper.
Nowt wrong with too many spoons you should see my kitchen! spoons, bowls Kuksas haha.

 

[dancan]

I carved a few of these last year but They're not my cup of tea .




I've given away a couple of sets of spoons to some friends and every family member will get a set for Xmas .

 

[bikebum1975]

You are a hell of an artist those are mighty purdy.

 

[TJRoots]

that hat on the left old man in the top pic! i feel so inadequate

they are brilliant mate, how long did it take to craft those fellas?

TJ

 

[dancan]

that hat on the left old man in the top pic! i feel so inadequate

they are brilliant mate, how long did it take to craft those fellas?

TJ

They take four or five evenings {I wasn't paying too much attention to time} not including paint , after I painted one I saw that you could leave out some details when carving and then make up with paint .I may make a few more after the summer .

 

[TJRoots]

i'm gonna have to try something like that myself, although they probably wont be anywhere near as good as yours.

what wood did you use? and would you recommend green or seasoned wood?

TJ

 

[dancan]

i'm gonna have to try something like that myself, although they probably wont be anywhere near as good as yours.

what wood did you use? and would you recommend green or seasoned wood?

TJ

An arborist gave me some branches that he saved from what he thought was Linden .
It had been stored in the basement .
Carving was not the best because one side of the branch is harder than the other but since I did not know any better I continued on.
The next ones I carve will be from striped maple which has been a pleasure to make spoons with green or dry but I'll try to get it dried for the santas to minimize cracking .

I have found some cheap xmas santas that I liked the style of at a thrift store that I will use as models for the next ones .
Don't worry about what your carvings turn out like , paint can hide a lot or put a lot of detail back in but if you don't like the results , throw it in a hobo stove , have a cup of tea and start again .

 

[TJRoots]

ah thanks, i've got some lime (basswood) seasoning atm from a tree surgeon friend, i think i'll try using a bit of that. the painting shouldnt be too hard, i used to paint miniture soldiers (warhammer if that means anything to you) so im pretty skilled at that, just a bit apprehensive about the carving, i'm not brilliant at fine detail, however i have been practicing alot recently and there has definately been some improvement.

cheers,
TJ