Choosing wood to make a spoon

[young1982]

I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction with this one, I want to christen a crook knife that my partner got me a while back by making a spoon. Is there a ideal wood to get hold of to make one, or any type of wood that I should stay clear of.

All the best

Gethin

 

[durulz]

Stay clear of Yew (it's poisonous).
Go for Beech or Ash.

 

[inthewids]

Hi there and welcome, birch is a good wood to start with, its quite soft, or cherry, willow ect. Good luck and get your results up

 

[robin wood]

soft woods to start; willow, poplar, alder. lime birch is perfect, soft when green but hard when dry.

Harder woods but still good and make better spoons as your skills increase; maple. sycamore, fruitwoods, rowan/whitebeam/service, hawthorn.

one of the beauties of spooncarving is that you can use pretty well anything and it is a great way to learn the properties of all the trees and shrubs around you.

The only wood I wouldn't use for a functional spoon is yew.

 

[young1982]

I new Yew was a no no, I've got a bit of silver birch drying at the moment will that be ok ?

 

[ForgeCorvus]

I would of thought carving green is better, thats what I was told for my Kuksa

I'm sure Dr Spoon will be along soon

 

[mr dazzler]

I like alder and lime best-alder for its workability and yellow/bronze colour, lime because its soft and even. Today I went to cut hazel (which also carves nicely), but no joy, the fields around the woodland and the approach ride were flooded out pretty much like a paddy field really, I wasnt taking the astra in there today it might never get back out again, sunk without trace like in Louisania swamp or something Gawd knows where all the carp will have gone to, there are 3 or 4 lakes which have "blended together" because of the flooding. BUT I struck lucky I instead did get some very nice sycamore which is a wood I never used before, very clean and straight, the fattest one is about a 12 inch diameter 10 foot long, it popped open into 2 halves easy as anything with the wedge. I carved a quick 10 minute spoon from it (well from a little blank split out from a smaller branch, it wasnt 10 foot long ) and it is very nice indeed to work with, even grained, not too stringy like ash or oak (I wouldnt start with ash its very coarse grained and sinewy) Cherry is an attractive wood, nice to work with but difficult to dry out without getting cracks

 

[DoctorSpoon]

I new Yew was a no no, I've got a bit of silver birch drying at the moment will that be ok ?

Birch is great, the traditional Scandinavian spoon wood. Don't dry it though, carve it green. It is much, much easier to work before it has dried. If you have a log that's been sitting around for a while cut a few inches off each end before you use it. They'll have dried out and might well have cracked. What's inside should be ok though.
Nicola

 

[young1982]

Thanks all, I'll get cracking on it tomorrow.

 

[bushcraft_lad]

good luck mate