Aspen Spoon

[Kepis]

One of many spoons ive made in the past two days to replace the two dozen or more ive sold over the past couple of weekends, this spoon is made from a quarter log of Aspen and although you cant see it in the photo has a lovely carved crank in the handle.

All of the roughing out was done with the axe and then it was finished off with the knives, the spoon has a tooled rather than sanded finish and some simple cut outs in the handle, for that decorative touch.

 

[Mesquite]

Very neat clean work there Mark

 

[HHazeldean]

That looks awesome, really nicely done!!

 

[Macaroon]

That's got a lovely balanced look to it, I love the handle detail............atb mac

 

[Harvestman]

Excellent as usual, and you manage yours in a day. Mine take days to weeks, or even months. I've never used aspen.

 

[Marmite]

Beautiful as always, still makes me feel a bit incompetent though. Still as the saying goes if you aim for the stars at least you shouldn't come up with a handful of mud

 

[Kepis]

Excellent as usual, and you manage yours in a day. Mine take days to weeks, or even months. I've never used aspen.

Aspen is lovely to carve, really soft, have to be a bit careful with it though as it is easy to cut just a little too deep if you dont watch what you are doing, in the past day & half ive made over a dozen spoons, but ive lost four to being a little over zealous with a couple of cuts and/or snapping it half as just didn't like it

Some of the others, mainly in Sycamore

 

[maddave]

Lovely work

 

[Lyope]

*spoon envy*

I also have a question... How do you find the abrupt angle between handle and bowl? I still have difficulty making spoons that are strong enough to stand up to every day use when I carve a tight angle there.

Most of my spoons have a smooth transition between the edge of the bowl and the handle and I'd really like to start making a Galatian style spoon like yours. So any tips would be very welcome!

 

[Rockmonkey]

Aspentastic there mate!
lovely work as always!

RM

 

[DaveBromley]

I absolutely love the fact that your "tooled" finish, looks smoother than mine and others "sanded" finish lol

GREAT work there mark!!

Dave

 

[Kepis]

*spoon envy*

I also have a question... How do you find the abrupt angle between handle and bowl? I still have difficulty making spoons that are strong enough to stand up to every day use when I carve a tight angle there.

Most of my spoons have a smooth transition between the edge of the bowl and the handle and I'd really like to start making a Galatian style spoon like yours. So any tips would be very welcome!

erm, how can i best describe this, the strength comes from the wood in the area where the bowl transitions to the handle as, in plan view the neck is narrow, on the side view the neck is thick giving it strength.

Take this spoon for instance, the neck in plan view is fairly narrow

but in the side view it's thick in the vertical plane

although there is an awful lot of end grain in the handle of this spoon, the grain is long, ie the end grain might be a few mm thick in the vertical plane, but it's length is many times that in the horizontal plane, again giving it strength, you have to be careful though, as end grain is the enemy.

This might also help too, tis a short video i did not that long ago of me carving a cranked handle spoon from a straight log, it may not be the right way to do it, but it works for me and those i have directly taught and instructed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n43pTlDQUaw

Hope this helps?.

 

[Kepis]

Thanks for the kind comments chaps - appreciate it

@RM - That was one of the Aspens we had to clear when we dismantled that big old Ash up the Lakes, plenty more up there if you want some

 

[Mafro]

Super work as always Mark. Such good spoons

 

[Rockmonkey]

@RM - That was one of the Aspens we had to clear when we dismantled that big old Ash up the Lakes, plenty more up there if you want some[/QUOTE]


I'll get the Stihl reved up!

RM

 

[Kepis]

I'll get the Stihl reved up!

RM

Good man

 

[Kepis]

Super work as always Mark. Such good spoons

thanks Mafro

 

[Dean]

Beautiful work Kepis.

 

[Baelfore]

Really nice spoons. :You_Rock_

 

[mrcharly]

*spoon envy*

I also have a question... How do you find the abrupt angle between handle and bowl? I still have difficulty making spoons that are strong enough to stand up to every day use when I carve a tight angle there.

Most of my spoons have a smooth transition between the edge of the bowl and the handle and I'd really like to start making a Galatian style spoon like yours. So any tips would be very welcome!

Cutting the tight angle can be difficult.

A narrow, short blade helps - I just have a mora 106 for this and end up choking up on the tip, so I'm actually holding the blade itself between finger and thumb.

'Stop cuts' are a good idea as well, so that when you are roughing out you don't go too far. If you are thinning the handle, make a cut directly in to the wood near the transition. Then if you slip or start to split off too much, you'll only take off wood as far as the stop cut.