28" stirrer in sycamore.

[tombear]

'Thought i'd see how much I could do a big spoon with the side axe I made from a carboot Elwell head I picked up. Much to my surprise it was most of it! I used a bent neck gouge to clear out the hollow and a palm sized surform to do most of the finishing then a couple of grades of sandpaper, It's intentionally chunky to be take some battering,

It should be big enough for the lads mash tub, herself big jam pan and my big dixie.

I'm giving it coats of food grade linseed oil since I don't have enough to soak it.

ATB

Tom

 

[Muddypaws]

That's an impressively large sized spoon! Good job.

 

[forginhill]

Way to break in that side axe! And impressive spoon.....I have a feeling that one will be getting used for a good long time....

 

[Robson Valley]

Simply the right size for a serious stock pot. Might be a plan to make a spoon rest so it does not need to be soaking in the soup.

Do the oven bake oil finishing process. 3 minutes and 30 seconds at 325F in your kitchen oven and you are done forever.

In my past life, making California Zinfandel wine from 25 x 36lb cases of grapes,
the lowly canoe paddle was ideal for stirring 2 x 45 gal primaries.

 

[Kepis]

Thats a cracker of a spoon

 

[dwardo]

Impressive fighting spoon.

 

[KenThis]

Impressive fighting spoon.

"I can see you've played knifey spoony before"

 

[tombear]

Cheers folks, it's already been named the Barnsley Fighting Spoon (In honour of Mike Harding) and had fifteen coats of food grade linseed oil. I'll give it a coat every time I get the oil out I don't think it will fit in the oven to be honest, even corner to corner!

Once I've some wide enough plank I will make a stirring oar and there's various sorts of peel i'd like to do. I've done a short one for the bakestone that I did a thread about.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Culinary School chefs told me that big paddle spoons need big holes in them.
They don't splash as much and there's far more mixing turbulence.
I took after one of them and began to stir my sauces with forks. It's quite true.

I can't help but wonder if the oil was heated, say 325F. and painted on with a silicone basting brush,
if this might not have the same effect as the Charles Law treatment in the oven.

Except for spring rolls, most deep frying is 365F - 380F so the above is pretty tame.

 

[tombear]

I'll have to try painting it on hot some time. I know the big tanks of Linseed oil the REME armourers had back when stocks were still made of wood were heated but I've no idea how hot. I'll have to see what temps covered by my kitchen thermometer .

Yeah, ive seen pictures of stirring paddles with various cutouts, usual circles but sometimes simple shapes like hearts and diamonds. I wish Id kept the link to a pic of a line of elderly gentlemen in paid shirts and baseball caps displaying their paddles and a gumbo cook off. it lookd like they were being scored.

Thats one job that will need seasoned wood I reckon. Once again my aversion to actually buying wood is holding mae back!

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Hot oiling. I'd take my cues from the oven process. The objective would be to get the wood hotter
than anything you are likely to experience in the kitchen (boiling broth, for example).
So, over a catch-pot, I'd be basting and basting the wood from the heated oil. Still guessing that 325F would be enough.
Even if all you did was the spoon bowl and 12" of the stem.

True enough: I do read about custom rifle and shotgun stocks being subjected to hot oil bending.
I've never bought and shot particularly expensive shotguns so any stock work on the cast and comb,
I'm just as happy to have a slash at it with my wood carving tools.

I had the good fortune to have been able to ask chefs why their spoons had holes.
As the years and decades drifted by, they both became friends and mentors of mine.

I was accustomed to scavenging carving wood from the debris burning piles left over from forest logging.
Couldn't see any virtue in buying wood where I live.
Hit a sand grain in some dirty wood with a $50 Pfeil 5/35. I was convinced after repairing that wreckage.
Buy fresh, clean blocks and posts from a cedar mill.

 

[Billy-o]

You could volunteer that as a spare oar for the Boat Race. Nice one