Oatcake making ladle no. 3

[tombear]

I didn't start on a bowl as I thought I would as I couldn't find a 12 inch recip blade that wouldn't cost me 27 quid for a pack of five and I didn't have the time to hand saw through the logs .

So I started on oatcake ladle no. 3. The bowl is going to replicate the second one held in the Rochdale reserve collection, the one with most of the handle missing. Rather than give it th same sort of handle as no.s 1 and 2 I decided to do something along the lines of the one in one of the drawings in Costumes of Yorkshire from about 1818.

That's enough for today, ill hollow out the bowl tomorrow, should be fun as it has a peculiar flat base. Then carve the outside of the bowl then go back and finish the handle which will have a round or oval cross section.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

It's a pleasure to watch your replication efforts. There's essentially nothing old here. I can only turn to collections of artifacts from the native communities, east and west,
for inspiration. Some extraordinary examples (ceremonial use?) of spoons, hot oil-bent from bison and mountain goat horn. Please do keep some notes of documentation.

 

[Goatboy]

Looking good Tom. Is the flat base for laying it down or tamping your oatcakes? Looking forward to seeing it progress.
>Robson Valley would be interested in seeing some of the pieces you talked about there too.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[tombear]

Cheers! Unfortunately we changed over to a supposedly better computer recently and a lot of my data is buried on discs we had to use to supposedly transfer stuff to the new one. I'm working from the written notes and sketches.

Plate IX here shows the sort of handle I'm going for. I've left plenty of meat to carve down from so far.

http://www.maggieblanck.com/Land/OPCE.html

ill try and find my photos! And work out how to crop them/ make smaller without PSP etc.

Oh it's the inside of the bottom of the bowl that is flat not the outside, I do have a chisel with a strange bent end that's for doing the inside of lock rebates and what have you. Sorry I should have been clearer.

atb

tom

 

[Goatboy]

Ah OK, was just me working things and uses out in my head.
Luckily I tend to leave the memory free in my laptop and store everything to external drives which ment that the last 'puter death wasn't too bad. Only some documents I was working on at the time. Saves the backbreak or putting everything back on. Not a fan of cloud storage though as I like to know where things are and for safety.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[tombear]

From watching the living history bods the ladles seam to be rounded on the bottom so as soon as the batter is poured they can give the goo a quick circular smear with the bottom of the ladle so it spreads out quicker.

Aye I regret being cheap ( well spending the money on shiny tools ) and not getting a portable hard drive. Now I have a stack of badly labelled DVDs with a almost random assortment of files. I'm not very computer orientated/literate to be
honest.

I've roughed out the bowl using the adze, large bent gouge and the funny chisel I mentioned before .

I've since sawn the outside of the blank to remove as much waste as I can and rough shaped the outside with my beloved surforms, next to carve down the handle then its filing and scraping.

ATB

Tom

 

[Goatboy]

Oh that's bigger than I thought. Hadn't quite got the scale from the first photograph. That's coming on at a good pace. Can't wait to see the end result - and of course action shots of some oatcakes being made.

 

[tombear]

Oh aye, the bowls sized to make the huge farm house instead of bread oatcakes, what 18 inches across. I'll have to insert a bit of contrasting wood at the right level for making the sort we use now, what 8 or 10 inch across? I've some yeast in and the right oatmeal but being green wood it may be a month or two before its seasoned.

im quite amazed hw quick you can shape green wood, especially with surforms and Permagrits.

That's all now, got to eat and do some house work.

ATB

Tom

 

[Monikieman]

Very nice indeed. Nice shape and uniformity.

 

[Fraxinus]

Tom that funny looking chisel is often called a Swan Neck chisel but some books call it after its use, mortice lock chisel.
Cracking looking ladle, really like the sweep of the handle...makes me want to pick it up.

Rob.

 

[tombear]

Ta, I think I prefer swan neck, it go's with the goosenecks! But not physically as I keep it in a roll with the oddities like the skews and L shaped corner chisels etc.

i do want to score more of the bent neck gouges. I sharpened the three I've been using so they are good to go but a wider range of sizes would be a good idea.

i much prefer the last one myself, the walls are thinner and so hopefully it will distort rather than crack in drying out. It does feel right in your hand. I can understand why they have so chunky handles, the originals, being a essential bit of kit in areas where the staple was oat cakes rather than wheat bread, but it does clash with my own sense of aesthetics.

ATB

Tom

 

[bikebum1975]

Wow that's an amazing shape. I wasn't expecting it to be that big. I really like how the handle neck is farther down to the bottom of the bowl. And by surform are you talking like the cheese grater type thing used for auto body work shaping body filler etc? If so hadn't thought of that may need to get one to try for kuksa work

 

[tombear]

It's definitely my favourite so far , the others copied from the Rochdale examples feel really clumsy but you could beat someone to death with them, I'll say that much! When they are seasoned and oiled I will measure their actual volumes and get someone to work out the size of oatcake they would make, of whatever's the average thickness of a oatcake...

Yup it's the cheese grater things, they work brilliantly on green wood. There's lots of different sizes and shapes,carboots tend to be full of them and you can still buy spare blades. You still have to scrape and sand to get a smooth finish but or rough shaping they are great!

atb

tom

 

[petrochemicals]

Like that a lot, like the other kitchen implements on here, I think they are better than anything you can buy. Remenisent of bb07's ladle

 

[tombear]

Had a mild shock just now, when I went to check the three ladles buried in shavings there was obvious signs of mould on all three! So out they came, I binned the sawdust and wiped the ladles down with white vinegar ( will repeat ) and I think all three will be ok after a light sanding. Truth be said they were going to be finished once they had seasoned anyway but still after a fair amount of work making them it was a unpleasant surprise.

i think the main thing I did wrong was I really buried them in shavings rather than just covering them. The stuff was packed tightly around them. With my right hand still messed up ( but much better than it was ) i will have to rope the family in to do the sanding. Thankfully there is plenty of meat to sand down. Infact I will put a bit of a curve into the handles of the first two and improve their looks while we are at it.

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

Spent way too long sanding the mould marks off and oiling two of th ladles.

The favourite has turned out well and after two weeks drying hasn't split. It's soaked up a lot of walnut oil and ill give it more coats over the next week.

The most mouldy one took a lot of sanding to remove most of the marks, we'd wiped it several times with white vinegar so hopefully that's killed it. We took the opportunity to put a bit of a curve into the handle, it's visible in the photos but not in the sketch I made to mark the dimensions of the original. The handles of course a bit thinner but we think it looks a lot better and is keeping with the spirit of the thing.

The third one was least affected by the mould and we will be sorting that next , We will be putting a bit of a curve in the handle of this one as well.

Anyroad assuming no disasters these here will be fit to use in a few days.

ATB

Tom
l

 

[forginhill]

Excellent work as usual!

 

[badoosh]

I like them, and cheers for the white vinegar tip. One for the memory bank.

 

[tombear]

Finished the last of the ladles, didnt need too much scraping to get the mould off, I re shaped the handle, I think it has improved it. Ill give them another coat of oil for each day of the next week.

Cheers!

Tom

 

[tombear]

Well folks it turns out I had a photo of the sort of lathe used to turn long handled ladles all along, in John Seymours " the Forgotten Arts and Crafts". Which in itself is a combined version of two earlier books he did, which perversely I also have, ex charity shops.

Note the the two ladles hanging to the right..

Can an any of the pole lathers out there point me to plans for such a lathe? I'm guessing that the massive uprights are actually embedded into the ground.

I appreciate that I will have to acquire a whole different set of turning tools, and skill set to use them but this is something I've been edging towards for a while. Thankfully there's several places in the garden where I could site a large device without it getting in the way and sons who like nothing so much as digging deep holes

atb

Tom