I picked up a Del Stubbs Hook Knife last week. He is a custom maker of spoon knives over here and it is not only a superb tool but he provides a rather effective and unique sheath for it.
It is a piece of high density blue foam wrapped with blue canvas with a velcro and elastic closure. Not exactly bushcrafty but effective and inexpensive.
Last weekend and thought an attempt at a Hoodoo inspired Chinese Soup Spoon might be fun. I have had my eye on some downed alder (from the windstorm last year) that looked like it might work reasonably well. So Saturday I slipped my small folding Felco saw in my pocket and cut off an eighteen inch section from a slab of the alder. Once home I sawed off a section and split off the edges and then crudely roughed out a soup spoon sort of blank.
Inside I started hogging off excess wood with my IJ Aito (which is an excellent working tool for this wet alder), and then shaping with a Diobsid Forge carving and my Kestrel Tool Baby NW Coast knife. This alder sliced off like butter with these tools. It was very wet from being downed and a real pleasure to carve.
You can sort of see where I was going with this
.
I was paring off the top surface when a growth ring let go
.damn. And this before I even had a chance to start hollowing the bowl with the new knife. Well, then a design change was called for.
How about a coffee scoop
..
The Del Stubbs Hook (pinewood forge) is really a nice tool, my only Scandinavian tradition type hook knife (I usually use Kestrel Tool or North Bay Forge NW Coast tools which are quite different). I do think I am going to order up a left hand version also. I used this in two different grips and really think a pair would be ideal for bowl hollowing tasks. I am not sure how I would compare this hook knife to my North Bay or Kestrel crooked knives. I do like this one though and some more use is called for.
I am going to try and braid a leather sheath much like this birchbark version from pinewood forges site....I think I will use a rawhide liner.
