The dreaded Pith

[IntrepidStu]

Every time I try to make a spoon I end up with the soft pith running from the inside to outside of the bowl, or form the bowl to the handle. Now if I was making novelty joke spoons I would have it cracked, but as im not, can somebody please tell me where im going wrong.

Cheers.
Stu.

 

[robin wood]

Yes and no. You are going right by having recognised that having the pith in a spoon is a bad idea...it is where most splits start. Can you post any pics of spoons? so we can see the grain orientation. What size of wood are you using as your raw material and what size spoons are you trying to make? I tend to start with say 2-3" diameter branches for eating spoons and split them in half down the pith then make a spoon out of each half without pith.

 

[Matt Weir]

Aiye, I can see how thith would pith you off.





I've already got me coat :sulkoff:

 

[IntrepidStu]

Ok here are some photos. Please remember I have never done any woodwork before and I have already had one trip to the A&E (sliced my finger with my new F1 yesterday).

You cant realy see the bowl in this picture but it IS there.

 

[robin wood]

OK nice and easy,
looks like you started from a fairly small branch and have used the whole branch to make your spoon. What you need to do next time is split the branch in half first, with a little branch this is an easy job, stand your branch up on a chopping black, put the knife across the top so it goes through the pith and separates the top into two equal parts. tap the back of the knife with a log to split your branch. Make one spoon out of each half. If your branch is too small to make a spoon out of half then find a bigger one and make something else out of your small branch but a 2" diameter branch is plenty to make a good spoon. You can make the spoon either with bowl facing the pit or I prefer to make them with the bowl facing the bark.
Yours is a good looking spoon, its good not to hollow too deep or your top lip will not fit the spoon. Sorry to hear you cut yourself, there are a range of safe ways of cutting wood efficiently which most folk end up using, they can be taught of learned by trial and error but if you do ever cut yourself think exactly what you were doing at the time and don't use that cutting technique again. Also good to have steristrips on hand.. they can often save a trip to A&E.
Robin

 

[IntrepidStu]

OK nice and easy,
looks like you started from a fairly small branch and have used the whole branch to make your spoon. What you need to do next time is split the branch in half first, with a little branch this is an easy job, stand your branch up on a chopping black, put the knife across the top so it goes through the pith and separates the top into two equal parts. tap the back of the knife with a log to split your branch. Make one spoon out of each half. If your branch is too small to make a spoon out of half then find a bigger one and make something else out of your small branch but a 2" diameter branch is plenty to make a good spoon. You can make the spoon either with bowl facing the pit or I prefer to make them with the bowl facing the bark.
Yours is a good looking spoon, its good not to hollow too deep or your top lip will not fit the spoon. Sorry to hear you cut yourself, there are a range of safe ways of cutting wood efficiently which most folk end up using, they can be taught of learned by trial and error but if you do ever cut yourself think exactly what you were doing at the time and don't use that cutting technique again. Also good to have steristrips on hand.. they can often save a trip to A&E.
Robin

As it turned out, becouse the blade was so sharp, it had stuck itself back together by the time i got to hospital. Shame my girlfreing put £4 in the pay and display realy.

Can you give a bit more info on the pit and bark part of your explanation?
Cheers
Stu

 

[Hoodoo]

Yup, the trick is using a branch large enough so that only half the branch will form the spoon.

You want to remove the wood down to the pith on one side. You can do this with a straight branch or a forked branch.

In the end, you get a spoon sans pith.

 

[Christy]

Due to the languagebarrier I'm unsure what a pith is. Can anyone explain cos it sure looks like a fine spoon to me

 

[Hoodoo]

Due to the languagebarrier I'm unsure what a pith is. Can anyone explain cos it sure looks like a fine spoon to me

Pith is a soft, sponge-like material found in the center of the stems of many plants. You can see the white streaks of pith in the first photo I posted.

 

[Christy]

Ah those white lines? Still looks a perfectly good sppon to me but I have low standards

 

[MartiniDave]

For your first attempt I'd say thats a pretty good looking spoon you've made there. The geometry is just about spot on. Find yourself some bigger branches to work with and you'll soon earn yourself a :You_Rock_

Dave

 

[JonnyP]

Stu.... I have a couple of spoons I have made like you did yours. I oiled them up and used them as normal. I think the oil tends to harden the pith as it dries.. I may be totally wrong on that, but most of the pith is still in my spoons, despite use...

 

[mr dazzler]

When I started I unwittingly left the central pith in tact and experienced distortion and cracking, plus its unattractive too. I was also being a tight wad trying to get too big a spoon from a too-small log . So now to make large ladles and serving type spoon's I generally start with a 5 or 6 inch log and split it 4 way. Then I take off the pith centre and about 1/2 inch of material below that so I get a flat strip about an inch or more wide. If I am doing one with the bowl facing the pith I will remove even more material at this stage. Then I take the bark off, then remove the other 2 corners in a similar fashion. Then I use pentel black marker's to put axis lines and vertical lines either end onto the blank to help me keep some sort of symetry, I judge and mark out the proportion's and form of bowl and handle by eye; then cross cut the cheeks, then remove the waste either side of the handle. I now do this with a huge rip saw which is incredibly fast and efficient, it gives me 2 mini blanks for little spoons that you wouldnt get axeinhg the waste out (and splitting it is chancy it can run out and cause you to lose part of the bowl :11doh: ) I dont want to waste good alder that way. I find cherry is a **** to dry it cracks easy even when you pack it in a sack with damp shavings. Alder is far more stable, lime is trickier but is stable if you are patient and dont rush the drying stage. Lime is my favourite for feel and also its light weight, but alder has a lovely choclatey red colour

 

[DoctorSpoon]

I've just been writing and drawing about this for our teaching resources, so thought I'd share with you too...

Wood shrinks as it dries, but this shrinkage is not even; tangential shrinkage (around the log) is far greater than radial shrinkage (across the log):

The stress caused by this is greatest at the centre of the log (the pith) and if left in the round often causes star-shaped splits from the pith outwards. You can relieve some of this tension by splitting the log in half - as a result it will shrink down more at the sides than the middle. It is still advisable to axe away the pith as it may still split. If you cut your spoons with the bowl facing the centre of the log they will shrink down more at the sides than the middle, making them shallower. We always cut ours with the bowl facing the bark so they get deeper as they dry:

Spoons cut from half a log have the added advantage of longer grain at the points of stress; the tip of the bowl where you’ll scrape your soup bowl or pan, and the most fragile point where the bowl joins the handle:

Wood is prone to splitting along the grain which is handy when you want to split up a larger log, but not in your finished piece where short grain will make them very weak. If you want to make a big ladle like this you are best finding a curved piece of wood to cut it from.

I hope that's of interest!
Nicola

 

[Hoodoo]

If you want to make a big ladle like this you are best finding a curved piece of wood to cut it from.

I hope that's of interest!
Nicola

Nice drawings!

You can also use a forked branch. The spoon above was carved from a forked branch.

 

[DoctorSpoon]

You can also use a forked branch. The spoon above was carved from a forked branch.

Yes, these make good spoons, don't they (yours looks really lovely by the way) although the axe work is quite difficult for beginners. A great beginner project is making little spoons out of small forked branches. This can be done without an axe at all although the knife work is a bit more fiddly. This is a very little one at about 4" long:

Nicola