Baked Alder kayak spoon

[punkrockcaveman]

A first for me in two ways! I can highly recommend the kayak spoon style for beginners, it's very quick and simple to carve, and strong to boot.

Alder a great wood to carve with, soft enough to be easy on the hands, yet dries strong unlike willow, very similar to birch, I'm impressed with the colour after baking. Very abundant too!

 

[Tiley]

That's lovely and a design that I have not seen before! I might just give it a try...

 

[slowworm]

I assume the backing hardens up the wood? What temp do you use and for how long?

 

[TLM]

I assume the backing hardens up the wood?

It does that but it also makes it more brittle. Some substances just boil out of the wood and that also makes it less likely to split from moisture changes. More here, it has a chapter on heat treating wood.

 

[Tony]

very nice indeed

 

[punkrockcaveman]

I assume the backing hardens up the wood? What temp do you use and for how long?

I use it purely for colour change- I dry the spoon after carving in a cool spot in the house for a week or so before finishing.

I lightly oil the wood with pure tung oil before baking, this stops too much moisture coming out and speeds up the colour change process so that there is less chance of the wood becoming brittle. Around 30 mins at 180C in a fan oven seems to work well for Alder and birch. I need to try it with beech as all the examples I've seen go a very nice dark brown.

 

[Tiley]

I use it purely for colour change- I dry the spoon after carving in a cool spot in the house for a week or so before finishing.

I lightly oil the wood with pure tung oil before baking, this stops too much moisture coming out and speeds up the colour change process so that there is less chance of the wood becoming brittle. Around 30 mins at 180C in a fan oven seems to work well for Alder and birch. I need to try it with beech as all the examples I've seen go a very nice dark brown.

Interesting. To me, it seems that you are baking the wood at quite a high temperature for quite a long time. If the ambition was not to darken the wood but merely to help it absorb the tung oil, would you bake it for less time at the same temperature or for the same amount of time at a lower temperature?

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Interesting. To me, it seems that you are baking the wood at quite a high temperature for quite a long time. If the ambition was not to darken the wood but merely to help it absorb the tung oil, would you bake it for less time at the same temperature or for the same amount of time at a lower temperature?

Same temp but only 3 to 4 mins works well for that, but to be honest the pure oil is so slow drying I just put a thin layer on at room temp and leave it a week or two before use.

Regarding the baking for colour, a lady named Deborah Schneebli Morrel has done much experimenting and I follow her guidlines- please see the following video for tips from her she knows a lot more than me

 

[Mesquite]

Very nice spoon.