I was generously gifted a few pieces of wood from a couple of members here.
plastic-ninja gifted me some lovely small blocks of Bog Oak which came from the batch he made these from. And the spalded Larch was kindly sent to me by Harvestman - with which he had produced a couple of lovely spoons for his stall.
First up, my very first Bog Oak spoon, carved with a Mora 120 and a couple of tiny gouges. As I free carved the spoon I ended up with a square block on the end of the handle and suggestions ranged from chess pieces to mini wood spirits, I ended up going for a ring-and-sphere (what's the correct term for this?) terminal. I had trouble carving out the bowl, so I left it as best my cheap mini-gouges could manage. This has left me with a bowl that I'm not very happy with at all. The terminal hasn't lined up squarely, but if ya look at it from the right angle... ;O)
The handle is a bit more balanced than it looks in pic 1, and I know there are some chatterings and rough sanding. I don't want to keep working this piece as it shows me my flaws and is a reminder to me of where I need to focus. Generally, I'm 80% happy with this one.
The next Bog Oak spoon is a Work-in-progress, and it's roughed out, waiting for more inspiration to carve some detail into the fish-tail handle terminal and smooth out the bowl inner and outer.
I need to work a lot more on balance and symmetry, but that aside, this Bog Oak is a pleasure to carve - even if it is rock hard and loves to dull my blade!
Thanks for the Oak plastic-ninja, not a patch on your work though!
Next up we have the Spalded Larch. Harvestman made a couple of simply styled spoons that I began simulating, but upon carving the wood, I noticed how brittle and dry it was, and inadvertently snapped a piece off here and there
so ended up having to revise designs and came up with much smaller spoons that I wanted! The spalding is gorgeous as hoped, but I feel I didn't do the wood justice. Lessons learnt.
Superior spaldage!:
I seem to be making my spoons with a 'sharp' handle ridge bottom or top...
So thanks for the Larch Harvestman, very kind of you.
When out hammocking with my son the other weekend, I found a lovely large piece of Beech which I began to hack a spoon out of, only for it to end up on the fire... I took a few small pieces home and have fashioned one of these:
It developed a crack at the front of the bowl, so I decided to shave that off and have ended up with some kind of mini-scoop. It was sanded down with 80, 40 and 0 grit sandpaper and is lovely and smooth, it's currently soaking up some linseed oil to attempt to ward off the second crack appearing towards the front of the bowl (The dark circular line in the above photo)
And a last family shot:
I'm having real trouble getting the bowls smooth and rounded with just mini-gouges. Anyone fancy swapping a 6 pointed Red Deer antler for a decent (Orford) spoonie? *whistles innocently*
plastic-ninja gifted me some lovely small blocks of Bog Oak which came from the batch he made these from. And the spalded Larch was kindly sent to me by Harvestman - with which he had produced a couple of lovely spoons for his stall.
First up, my very first Bog Oak spoon, carved with a Mora 120 and a couple of tiny gouges. As I free carved the spoon I ended up with a square block on the end of the handle and suggestions ranged from chess pieces to mini wood spirits, I ended up going for a ring-and-sphere (what's the correct term for this?) terminal. I had trouble carving out the bowl, so I left it as best my cheap mini-gouges could manage. This has left me with a bowl that I'm not very happy with at all. The terminal hasn't lined up squarely, but if ya look at it from the right angle... ;O)
The handle is a bit more balanced than it looks in pic 1, and I know there are some chatterings and rough sanding. I don't want to keep working this piece as it shows me my flaws and is a reminder to me of where I need to focus. Generally, I'm 80% happy with this one.
The next Bog Oak spoon is a Work-in-progress, and it's roughed out, waiting for more inspiration to carve some detail into the fish-tail handle terminal and smooth out the bowl inner and outer.
I need to work a lot more on balance and symmetry, but that aside, this Bog Oak is a pleasure to carve - even if it is rock hard and loves to dull my blade!
Thanks for the Oak plastic-ninja, not a patch on your work though!
Next up we have the Spalded Larch. Harvestman made a couple of simply styled spoons that I began simulating, but upon carving the wood, I noticed how brittle and dry it was, and inadvertently snapped a piece off here and there
so ended up having to revise designs and came up with much smaller spoons that I wanted! The spalding is gorgeous as hoped, but I feel I didn't do the wood justice. Lessons learnt.
Superior spaldage!:
I seem to be making my spoons with a 'sharp' handle ridge bottom or top...
So thanks for the Larch Harvestman, very kind of you.
When out hammocking with my son the other weekend, I found a lovely large piece of Beech which I began to hack a spoon out of, only for it to end up on the fire... I took a few small pieces home and have fashioned one of these:
It developed a crack at the front of the bowl, so I decided to shave that off and have ended up with some kind of mini-scoop. It was sanded down with 80, 40 and 0 grit sandpaper and is lovely and smooth, it's currently soaking up some linseed oil to attempt to ward off the second crack appearing towards the front of the bowl (The dark circular line in the above photo)
And a last family shot:
I'm having real trouble getting the bowls smooth and rounded with just mini-gouges. Anyone fancy swapping a 6 pointed Red Deer antler for a decent (Orford) spoonie? *whistles innocently*
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. Looks nice, but pretty ropey. You've done a lovely job with those bits I gave you.
