Spoon Carving

[Henry_Yorke]

Hello all,

I’ve been getting stuck in to some whittling recently but am keen to try and carve a spoon.
Where do folk source their wood?
And what is a suitable learners wood?

Many thanks

 

[Wayne]

Virtually all wood is good for a spoon. The fresher the better. Some are toxic so avoid cooking with them rhododendron and laurel are nasty. Fruit woods are great Apple Cherry, plum. Hazel and sycamore etc. the joy is playing with different woods learning about their characters.
the YouTube videos will be mainly basswood Which is Lime.
make sure your knives are scary sharp and strop every 15 minutes of carving.

 

[Henry_Yorke]

Thanks Wayne- appreciated!
Wish me (and my fingers) luck

 

[henchy3rd]

Virtually all wood is good for a spoon. The fresher the better. Some are toxic so avoid cooking with them rhododendron and laurel are nasty. Fruit woods are great Apple Cherry, plum. Hazel and sycamore etc. the joy is playing with different woods learning about their characters.
the YouTube videos will be mainly basswood Which is Lime.
make sure your knives are scary sharp and strop every 15 minutes of carving.

Seasoned rhododendron wood is ok as it has very low amounts of toxins.
I do believe it’s the leaves & flowers that carry most toxins, so best to wear gloves as the skin can absorb it.
Be interesting what others think?

 

[Kadushu]

For beginners I always recommend soft woods like hazel, birch or lime because it's a lot easier on your hands and quicker to carve. Save the seasoned fruit wood for when you've got some callouses in the right places and a better feel for what you're doing.

 

[plastic-ninja]

You should be able to lay hands on some alder without too much effort. It grows like a weed and is nice & easy to carve.
Try a post on your local sell and seek sites or ask a tree surgeon. Sharp knives are the key to not cutting yourself.

 

[Erbswurst]

If you do it with just the bushcraft knife you scratch the wood out of that hole rather than cutting it out. Otherwise you will not get a convincing result.

The hole gets the shape of the belly of your blade.

 

[mikehill]

Is willow any good for carving ?

 

[Wayne]

Is willow any good for carving ?

Willow is fine for spoons. Fairly soft to carve.

 

[mikehill]

Thanks, I have a free supply of that

 

[Mesquite]

Hello all,

I’ve been getting stuck in to some whittling recently but am keen to try and carve a spoon.
Where do folk source their wood?
And what is a suitable learners wood?

Many thanks

Next time there's a storm have a wander around afterwards looking for windfall branches.

Also, birch is a good starter wood to have a go with.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

Well done on having go at spoons!

Alder would be my first suggestion (its easy to carve and doesn't warp or crack upon drying), get it green if you can, some woods can crack quite early on after cutting, and you might not find out until you have finished the spoon.

More importantly try and get a piece of wood with super straight grain.

At first it's well worth using a saw for neck and crank cuts.

Super sharp tools really help! A good spoon knife is worth it's weight in gold and so is a mora 106!!

Templates are a great help too. At the very least draw yourself a straight centreline for your spoon.

Lastly, zed outdoors does some fab in depth spoon carving vids on youtube

 

[John Elstob]

As already mentioned woods that can be carved, especially for spoons Lime (basswood), Birch, Sycamore, Holly, Beech, Willow and virtually all fruit woods. There is a caveat to carving Beech and Holly more than any of the other woods must be green or it will be like carving granite.
I have just carved the spoon blank from sycamore with a new knife that I got a last weekend. Very impressed with it sharpness not needing to be stropped during the roughing out part of the blank.

 

[John Elstob]

Also Barn the spoon website is a good source for green spoon blanks, if you have trouble getting wood. He offers a range of blanks in different woods