As an experienced spoon carver I usually make my own spoon blanks from greenwood, however i saw this pack of mixed species blanks on Amazon and bought them out of sheer curiosity.
Now, i fully understand that not everybody has access to fresh cut greenwood for carving and are reliant on anything they can get their hands on, gawd only knows that i have faced the same conundrum myself in the past few years since falling ill, thankfully though i had a good stock of pre-made blanks in the workshop, albeit that they had all dried out since i initially made them with the axe or bandsaw, so yes, for those without access to greenwood, pre-made blanks are a godsend as it allows you to pursue a hobby that might otherwise be unavailable to you or at the very least difficult to follow due to the lack of materials.
The woods supplied in this particular pack are a nice mix of different species, these being Alder, Elm, Maple & Walnut with each species being clearly identified on the blank, as can be expected these blanks being a commercial product are, I suspect, cut with a bandsaw from planks of kiln dried woods rather than woods collected "in the wild" then dried out naturally, and being kiln dried, they are rock hard, this can be somewhat rectified by soaking the blank in hot water for a number of hours before carving to 'soften' the wood slightly, however even after doing this I would suspect that a total novice would struggle to carve these blanks safely and even as a highly experienced carver, you can see these are going to be hard work and these are something that not even i would be happy to carve.
Whilst the listing on Amazon clearly states the sizes of the spoon blanks they are in reality just about large enough to make a very small eating spoon or a large tea spoon with, there is just about enough depth in the blank to allow a subtle crank to be carved that can transition into a nice shallow bowl that would be suitable for eating with, the depth and length of the handle will allow different profiles to be carved, i do feel however that the handle length is a little short and the bowl a little narrow.
Pros.
Nice mix of species
Good for anyone without easy access to wood to carve
Good grain direction, two blanks were from radially cut wood, the other two from tangentially cut
Blanks were knot and check free (in the ones I received)
Cons
Fairly expensive
Small
Rock hard
Would i recommend these to to a complete novice who wants to have a go at spoon carving, probably not, the hardness and small size in my personal opinion makes these unsuitable for a novice carver, who may attempt carving these with a poor technique and tools that are perhaps not best suited and/or not at all sharp.
Anyone and everyone who carves spoons has been through the same process of learning, that is starting out with with tools that are not as sharp as they could be and also a poor carving technique that is purely down to inexperience, with these two factors combined i can see novice carvers struggling with the size of these blanks and the hardness of the wood and in some cases carving this could result in some nasty accidents.
I have since returned these to Amazon.
The above is purely my own opinion based on real world observations of the product, your own experiences may vary, I have no affiliation to Beavercraft in any way, shape or form.
Now, i fully understand that not everybody has access to fresh cut greenwood for carving and are reliant on anything they can get their hands on, gawd only knows that i have faced the same conundrum myself in the past few years since falling ill, thankfully though i had a good stock of pre-made blanks in the workshop, albeit that they had all dried out since i initially made them with the axe or bandsaw, so yes, for those without access to greenwood, pre-made blanks are a godsend as it allows you to pursue a hobby that might otherwise be unavailable to you or at the very least difficult to follow due to the lack of materials.
The woods supplied in this particular pack are a nice mix of different species, these being Alder, Elm, Maple & Walnut with each species being clearly identified on the blank, as can be expected these blanks being a commercial product are, I suspect, cut with a bandsaw from planks of kiln dried woods rather than woods collected "in the wild" then dried out naturally, and being kiln dried, they are rock hard, this can be somewhat rectified by soaking the blank in hot water for a number of hours before carving to 'soften' the wood slightly, however even after doing this I would suspect that a total novice would struggle to carve these blanks safely and even as a highly experienced carver, you can see these are going to be hard work and these are something that not even i would be happy to carve.
Whilst the listing on Amazon clearly states the sizes of the spoon blanks they are in reality just about large enough to make a very small eating spoon or a large tea spoon with, there is just about enough depth in the blank to allow a subtle crank to be carved that can transition into a nice shallow bowl that would be suitable for eating with, the depth and length of the handle will allow different profiles to be carved, i do feel however that the handle length is a little short and the bowl a little narrow.
Pros.
Nice mix of species
Good for anyone without easy access to wood to carve
Good grain direction, two blanks were from radially cut wood, the other two from tangentially cut
Blanks were knot and check free (in the ones I received)
Cons
Fairly expensive
Small
Rock hard
Would i recommend these to to a complete novice who wants to have a go at spoon carving, probably not, the hardness and small size in my personal opinion makes these unsuitable for a novice carver, who may attempt carving these with a poor technique and tools that are perhaps not best suited and/or not at all sharp.
Anyone and everyone who carves spoons has been through the same process of learning, that is starting out with with tools that are not as sharp as they could be and also a poor carving technique that is purely down to inexperience, with these two factors combined i can see novice carvers struggling with the size of these blanks and the hardness of the wood and in some cases carving this could result in some nasty accidents.
I have since returned these to Amazon.
The above is purely my own opinion based on real world observations of the product, your own experiences may vary, I have no affiliation to Beavercraft in any way, shape or form.
