Have made a few spoons in the last week or two, just idly whittling and playing with trying to get a tooled finish worth showing. No success on the latter yet, so all these are sanded.
Left to right...
1. Serving spoon in Black Locust. This was the one I was trying to get a tooled finish on. Didn't work but I probably learned loads from this spoon and think my carving skills are a lot better as a result of this spoon. Bowl is a bit thick and it has the first shaped handle I've ever done. I'm not entirely happy with it as a spoon, but it was fun to do.
2. Turned scoop/ladle. Not sure of the wood. This was another experiment. Take a bit of wood and turn it, leaving a round ball on the end. then trim some of the ball away, and try to scoop out the inside. It worked, but the bowl was too small for my carving tools so the inside of the bowl is a bit rough but this is another method I think I will use again.
3. 4. & 5. are all grey poplar, from the stub of a dead branch that I cut away from a tree at work because I wanted to sit and lean against the tree and the dead bit was in the way. The piece was less than a foot long, but I split it with a hatchet and got these three spoons from it, going pretty much with the shapes that the split wood gave me. These three took me 2 days, start to finish, in my lunch hour. All three are finished with hot walnut oil.
3. is a very long teaspoon, sort of like those long spoons you sometimes get with a latte. The handle tapers too much at the tip, because of the way the wood split, and the bowl is uneven. I'm not too happy with this one, although it is a perfectly servicable spoon.
4. is somewhere between a spatula and a spoon, but is the one I like best. Good even handle, and the bowl is a nice shape. The markings work too.
5. is a teaspoon, from a failed split. Basically, i just managed to shave a bit off the wood instead of splitting it as I wanted, but there was just enough wood to do something with. I'm quite pleased how this came out.
I'm going to try to always have a spoon on the go, so that if the weather is decent I can sit outside in my lunchbreak at work and use the time to make spoons. I need to have something to do in work at lunchtimes, since they have now installed a tv in the staff room, so the staff room is now unusable as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, thanks for looking.
Left to right...
1. Serving spoon in Black Locust. This was the one I was trying to get a tooled finish on. Didn't work but I probably learned loads from this spoon and think my carving skills are a lot better as a result of this spoon. Bowl is a bit thick and it has the first shaped handle I've ever done. I'm not entirely happy with it as a spoon, but it was fun to do.
2. Turned scoop/ladle. Not sure of the wood. This was another experiment. Take a bit of wood and turn it, leaving a round ball on the end. then trim some of the ball away, and try to scoop out the inside. It worked, but the bowl was too small for my carving tools so the inside of the bowl is a bit rough but this is another method I think I will use again.
3. 4. & 5. are all grey poplar, from the stub of a dead branch that I cut away from a tree at work because I wanted to sit and lean against the tree and the dead bit was in the way. The piece was less than a foot long, but I split it with a hatchet and got these three spoons from it, going pretty much with the shapes that the split wood gave me. These three took me 2 days, start to finish, in my lunch hour. All three are finished with hot walnut oil.
3. is a very long teaspoon, sort of like those long spoons you sometimes get with a latte. The handle tapers too much at the tip, because of the way the wood split, and the bowl is uneven. I'm not too happy with this one, although it is a perfectly servicable spoon.
4. is somewhere between a spatula and a spoon, but is the one I like best. Good even handle, and the bowl is a nice shape. The markings work too.
5. is a teaspoon, from a failed split. Basically, i just managed to shave a bit off the wood instead of splitting it as I wanted, but there was just enough wood to do something with. I'm quite pleased how this came out.
I'm going to try to always have a spoon on the go, so that if the weather is decent I can sit outside in my lunchbreak at work and use the time to make spoons. I need to have something to do in work at lunchtimes, since they have now installed a tv in the staff room, so the staff room is now unusable as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, thanks for looking.
