A spoon I made for Mother's Day

[Tomcoles]

Ok this is my laughable first attempt at a spoon no where near as good as the spoons I have seen on the forum but hay. I was making it for mums Mother's Day present. As something made is always more personal than some thing brought.
All said and done I really enjoyed doing it. I found that I was able to do 90% of it with my SFA and then just smooth off with my knife. I brought a flexcut crook knife especially for the job and I have to say it worked well.

On question I have is I have applied a coat of walnut oil but I want it to be darker than it is what do people use?? Could I add coffee to the oil???

any constructive critasim welcome, it will help me learn


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[bushwacker bob]

Sand it. It makes a big difference. Good spoon.

 

[THOaken]

Good attempt there. It looks like you carved it out of the wood "cylinder" itself instead of splitting it? Is that ash?

I would follow a tutorial if you're new to carving. Especially for something like a spoon. I followed Ben Orford's tutorial. Once you have a structure to follow you can do it free form and improvise a bit. It really is better to split your cylinder of wood so that you have a flat surface. Carve the front bowl-end down and offset the back side so that it forms a crank in the handle. I haven't gotten the hang of that part yet, but people seem to like what I've made so far. You want to draw the design of your spoon on the flat surface and then carve down the sides to the pencil lines of the handle. Make two stop cuts where the handle meets the bowl or neck of the spoon so that when you carry on chopping you don't split down into the bowl and ruin the entire thing. Remove the material from the bowl side down to the pencil lines or close to them. Then you just need to neaten it up with the carving knife and gouge out the bowl with a crook knife. I may be missing some steps, but this is writing from memory. And remember, you want sleek and elegant, not crude and clumsy. My first spoon is very wonky and the lip of the bowl is bulbous, making it hard to eat from. You want to try and take as much material off as possible, though it's tempting to want a thicker spoon for durability.

And to answer your oiling question, I use walnut oil too but it doesn't seem to make it that much darker. I believe you have to use a different type of wood as most woods are just white anyway. I believe apple or cherry is very dark but I haven't used that yet.

Good luck.

 

[Tomcoles]

Thankyou very much for taking the time to help me I really appreciate it.
Yes I did just carve from the cylinder but I did flatten one side first with an axe but I didn't split it as such. I was going to make it slender but decided to leave it thick as it's only ment to be a tasting spoon/cooking spoon. So I left it a little thicker to take any heat effect when cooking with it.
It is ash. So very white.


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[ozzy1977]

The main reason for splitting is to remove the pithy core down the middle of the log and it helps remove tensions that cause splits when it dries. Tutorials are good up to a point, but dknt follow them word for word, that takes out the fun of letting tbe wood tell you what it wants to do as no 2 bits of wood are the same.

 

[MartiniDave]

I'd say that's a pretty darn good first effort, way better than my earliest attempts. I'm sure you Mum will love it.

Dave

 

[mousey]

I walnut oil my spoons [I've only done 4] but I found that using them darkens the wood considerably. One I have used a fair bit to make tea and coffee is much darker through handling/ washing/ general use than another that has just been sitting on a shelf. It is a slow process which I hardly noticed until I put the two spoons side by side.

After a spoon I tried a fork, they start with four prongs but inevitably end up just as a pointy stick....

 

[THOaken]

I walnut oil my spoons [I've only done 4] but I found that using them darkens the wood considerably. One I have used a fair bit to make tea and coffee is much darker through handling/ washing/ general use than another that has just been sitting on a shelf. It is a slow process which I hardly noticed until I put the two spoons side by side.

After a spoon I tried a fork, they start with four prongs but inevitably end up just as a pointy stick....

I made my first fork a while ago and it resembles and functions more like one of those plastic ones you'd get in a lunch box or something and it has very small tines. It works, but I haven't used it much

 

[Goatboy]

Looks good to me Tom. Your Mum should be a happy lady with that. Personal gifts are always great, I always think that a bit of thought and care in a gift is much more important.
Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[THOaken]

If I may add something, that axe looks a bit too large. I use the Gransfors wildlife hatchet, I believe. It's much smaller and easier to control. It looks like you can control it though as it's a good first attempt. Much better than my first, that's for sure!

 

[Tomcoles]

Thankyou it is it's bigger brother I am using the small forest axe. I just choke it for control. A smaller axe is on the wish list


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[Dave-the-rave]

To stain light wood I've used a strong tea/coffee mix. Soak the spoon, allow to dry, and seal using your oil. Let the Walnut oil dry and harden for a good while, at least a week, and most of the stain will stay in the wood. I enjoy staining light wood because...I don't like light wood and the results are always different depending on the wood and strength of stain.

 

[Tomcoles]

Exelllent thanks


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[bribri]

Very n8ce work mate

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[Tomcoles]

Thankyou I really enjoyed it


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