Carving a Spoon (Novice)

[THOaken]

Enjoying the lovely sunshine here and beginning my spoon carving. I've split the birch and got two blanks with few imperfections. Quick question, however... Does the blank need to be completely smooth or is it okay to continue with drawing the spoon outline on to the blank? You can see in my picture below there are prominent wood ridges and I'm not entirely sure how that'd effect the project if at all.

I know it's a very simple question, and I would've asked someone on FB, but nobody's online.

Would appreciate swift response as would love to get back into it. Just unsure is all.

Thanks.

 

[Stew]

You're going to carve and shape it anyway so it's fine to carry on drawing now.

 

[Clouston98]

It's fine, that's how wood always looks after its been split.

 

[Goatboy]

Quick fact for you THOaken, split wood is more rot resistant than sawn wood due to less damage to the cell walls. (Used to make lovely fences from cleaved ash, looked really pretty and was very satisfying cleaving logs down to posts and planks.)


Looks a nice piece of wood, but as you're going to be removing most of the timber the external stuff doesn't need to be smooth, the pencil marks will just be a rough guide anyway.


Have fun,

GB.

 

[Samon]

No need to worry mate, get the outline penciled on and get working. All those imperfect sticky outy bits will be worked away once you get a knife to it.

This is how some of mine look, and these were done on rock solid seasoned, twisty and knotten plum! still turned out alright though.





Hope those pitures help alittle mate! any other questions feel free to fire away! and have fun.

 

[Two Socks]

Try to get rid of the pith and inner growth rings though. Reduces the risk of your spoon splitting quite a bit.

 

[THOaken]

Thanks, Samon and everyone else.

Just realised something...

[video=youtube;-o1s_ZbY4Ts]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o1s_ZbY4Ts&feature=youtu.be[/video]

If I need to do it again, I'd like to know if I'm heading in the right direction with the shaping. Thanks.

 

[Two Socks]

You could carve through the knot. It can be done quite well. You could also just turn it around and let that be the handle-side. Then the bit you now took away for the handle has become the bowl-depression.

 

[Mesquite]

Just make it a shorter spoon and cut the section with the knot off.

 

[THOaken]

Another quick question... This is rather embarrasing if this is the case, but I wouldn't be going against the grain, would I? The properties and structure of wood still elude me, but Orford's surface is flush and clean, whereas mines looks like:

Is this a problem?

 

[Two Socks]

No, this is quite with the grain. You`ll notice when you go against it because the wood will split rather than be sliced off. You could achieve a smoother surface by trying to sweep your axe cuts more, so that they are more slicing and less chopping.

Edit to say: unless you are cutting from the bowl-side and up... that is against the grain.

 

[bert333]

Noooooooooooo, don't lose the knots! learn to love them! they do add character to your work (IMHO)
Click pic for bigger one!

 

[swotty]

I think the best way to learn is to just go for it, you'll have failures but then you'll not make the same mistakes again. As was said before don't worry about if its smooth at this stage as you will either be carving smooth or sanding it anyway. If this is your first spoon don't expect too much from yourself its all a learning curve

 

[Stew]

Another quick question... This is rather embarrasing if this is the case, but I wouldn't be going against the grain, would I? The properties and structure of wood still elude me, but Orford's surface is flush and clean, whereas mines looks like:

Is this a problem?

Presuming you are cutting frm the left to the right in this picture, you are cutting the right way. Ben's surface is probably smoother from things like less cuts to achieve the same, sharper tools, etc.

 

[Goatboy]

Presuming you are cutting frm the left to the right in this picture, you are cutting the right way. Ben's surface is probably smoother from things like less cuts to achieve the same, sharper tools, etc.

Could also be down to the grain/timber, some splits cleaner than others. It's looking fine though so far THOaken.

 

[Clouston98]

Another quick question... This is rather embarrasing if this is the case, but I wouldn't be going against the grain, would I? The properties and structure of wood still elude me, but Orford's surface is flush and clean, whereas mines looks like:

Is this a problem?

I wouldn't say it's embarrassing mate, just a spoon and a first attempt.

Orford will be cleaner as stew said sharper tools but a hell of a lot of experience in carving too, it'll never be like that first time round.

Good luck, looking forward to seeing the finished spoon.

 

[Mesquite]

Noooooooooooo, don't lose the knots! learn to love them! they do add character to your work (IMHO)
View attachment 24900 Click pic for bigger one!

I agree if you're an experienced carver that keeping knots can be desirable.

However, for someone attempting their first spoon on less than ideal wood I'd always say why deliberately make it hard for yourself so loose the knots.

 

[Stew]

Depending on how far you are I would just flip your design round and have the knot at the top of the handle and make a more shallow spoon/spatula.

 

[THOaken]

This is the progress so far. Unfortunately I left the knot in because I just hacked a bit of it off and it didn't look so offensive. I'm sure it won't be too much of an issue... There's plenty more larger problems with the wood than that silly little knot - cracking, for example.

But yes, here's two shots of the front and back. Not going too bad at the moment, I think. It's looking vaguely like a spoon, so that's something.

Thoughts?

And yes, I'm aware of the brown pith line...

 

[Goatboy]

Looks like it's coming on well to me, one thing about natural materials is always there lack of consistency and the inclusion of imperfections. That's why with experimentation and learning one learns to "release what's in there"! Think it's going well my friend.

In fact the imperfections can make something even more special, like this flint handaxe where the creator has deliberately worked around the fossil shell. I think it's beautiful.
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