3 spoons and a ladle

[tombear]

To stop myself getting bored whitless at the craft fair I scraped out the bowls on some of the blanks we had taken along. There wasn't anything to clamp them down with so I couldn't do a proper job with a gouge and mallet and the seasoned wood laughed off the spoon knives but they made passable scrapers.

Anyroad the cold the youngest brought home from school ( thanks lad ) has got on my chest so I wasn't going any where today so I finished them off today.

The three spoons, , well I was told the wood was holly but all I know is it's very hard after a year on a windowsill but carves well with sharp tools and sands easily. The ladle, I've no idea what the wood is, I now write on the blanks, but it carved well and since the end reminded me of an elephant I had a go at carving one. It may have helped if I had got a photo of one but I was pretty blurry but it seams to have come out well. The family like it anyway.

Thats enough spoons for the foreseeable future.

atb

Tom

 

[Madriverrob]

Really nice .... You've inspired me to try a few long handled efforts.

 

[Robson Valley]

I vote for the elephant ladle. Those sorts of carved decorations do add an elegant note.

 

[Arya]

Beautiful finish on them!

 

[tombear]

Cheers, they scraped really well and hardly needed any sanding. I don't mind leaving tool marks on the handles but the bit that may goes in the mouth or is most in the food in the case of ladles I like to get as silky smooth and easiest to clean as possible. This has sometimes led me to over do it and end up with pieces more thin walled and fragile than is practicable.

Atb

Tom

 

[forginhill]

Wow, I really like them all! Who needs a shop with the all the clamps and jigs when you can make spoons like that without them! Top notch work....

 

[Muddypaws]

Nice spoons! I really like the elephant detail on the ladle,.so much more interesting than a boring plain hook end.

 

[tombear]

Yeah, I need to do more decoration. Herself wants me to find a bit of bone and copy the elephant head in that to make a hair pin.

um, it took most of 2 five hour sessions to scrape the bowls of the three spoon and the first bit of the ladle, which took 10 mins to complete once I got it home and clamped it in the big vice on the work bench and could whack the gouges with a mallet!

I'm in two minds about what big bit of kit to save up for next. Bits to make a pole lathe and the long handled tools to go with or a stock/cobblers knife....

Winters coming so since the pole lathe I want to do ( suitable for doing big ladles with the long handle whizzing back and forwards ) involves setting railway sleepers into the ground and won't be under cover it can probably wait until spring.

A stock knife I could use in the Shed and would really speed up trimming blanks. It's finding one that's the problem, there's some kit I don't use that would fund it I reckon.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Clearing out where I was going to store my shiny new permagrits ( and their older brethren ) I found a last spoon blank that one of the kids had started/ chavelled and abandoned in disgust, it being of the more awkward to work spalted sort.

mainly to try out the new 'grits I turned it into another cawl spoon, a bit lopsided but as I said it had been started by someone else ( excuses excuses )

I thought I'd jazz it up a bit with some simple decoration so ran a spiral pencil line up the handle and chased it with the triangular, then square then round large needle file permagrits. I finished it with fairly smooth sand paper and three coats of walnut oil.

That's definitely the last.

Really.

ATB

Tom

 

[Leshy]

That is smart. Lovely spalt on that too...

 

[tombear]

Cheers! The lady who supplied the wood says there's more like it in their wood pile if I need more. I've 3 or more boards left you could get 4 spoons out of each so I'm probably good for a while yet. She's the one who organised the craft show thing last weekend so while I was there I let her take her pick of the carved stuff as a thank you and she took a couple despite my urging to take what she wanted. She seamed chuffed anyway.

if you don't have any I can dig out the boards let you take your pick and post you one no problem.

atb

tom

 

[Leshy]

Tom you're a gent!
I'm OK for now, got too much wood to sort through (some for seasoning and some for the hobbies) and not enough room ...
Thanks for the offer though , that's very kind.

 

[tombear]

No worries, if you ever change your mind they are just sitting in a basket in the shed, dry and away from owt
that will harm them, unless fine wood dust and the smell of frying bacon can harm wood.

i have a correction, the wood of the three spoons isn't holly its hawthorn, I stumbled on a old thread where I had made a spoon from a identical when oiled wood that I named. Oddly it doesn't look at all like the Hawthorn I took from the dead tree out back witch was yellower with the off red heart wood and flecks. No matter.

its been a funny sort of a day, woke ridiculously early and crept around the shed putting a top coat of satin yacht varnish on a huge (ex pub I used to go into in Stockport) Raper and Sons snooker scoreboard that had needed cleaning up so I can fix it to a beam when we get home tonight and at a suitable distance sanded down and got into the linseed oil soaking pot the handles on the stubby gouge and old tin opener I got at the boot last week. Gone half seven now so I can sneak back into the bedroom and get dressed without getting flak for waking herself before the agreed 7.45 start up time. Got a busy one planned so up about 3 hours before normal on a Saturday!

ATB

Tom