Elm spoon whittle

Chris

Life Member
Sep 20, 2022
943
1,079
Somerset, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire
As the power was out yesterday and was forced to live the life of a literal caveman, I thought I'd take the opportunity to whittle a very basic spoon out of some Elm. Kepis has inspired me to get back into doing the odd whittle. It's been a few years and I'm a complete amateur. It's not pretty, but it's a spoon.

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What I learned:

- Knife sharp. Fire hot. Finger ow. Ug.
- Elm is quite tricky to carve, I've never tried it before. A couple of times for seemingly no reason, the blade would catch a bit of divergent grain or something and it'd take a big chunk out rather than a nice elegant shaving. This is probably also down to my (lack of) skill.
- I think I will be following Kepis' advice for my next one and soaking the wood, as the wood I have is very dry.

Anyway, it was a fun little whittle and the electricity-free time just flew by whilst happily in my own world with the knife and the elm.
 

Kepis

Full Member
Jul 17, 2005
6,846
2,748
Sussex
Looks good to me, Elm can be a sod to carve as the grain dives all over the shop and as you rightly say , its hard, but equally the effort can be worth it with some amazing grain patterns and colours.

Hope your finger heals quickly.
 
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Chris

Life Member
Sep 20, 2022
943
1,079
Somerset, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire
Looks good to me, Elm can be a sod to carve as the grain dives all over the shop and as you rightly say , its hard, but equally the effort can be worth it with some amazing grain patterns and colours.

Hope your finger heals quickly.
Thanks! It's only a nick and a very sharp blade so it should heal up nice and quickly.

The grain patterns are lovely, I think with a bit of practice I'll be able to showcase those a bit more without the cuts making it look so messy.
 
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