Two serving spoons

[Harvestman]

After a period of making small spoons, I wanted to try my hand at something a little larger. I had a nice bit of cedar that looked suitable, so I made a serving spoon. I actually got quite a reasonable tooled finish on the bowl, inside and out, but the bowl edge and handle were terrible, so I sanded it smooth in the end. The grain is nice, and a little more pronounced than the picture shows. It is the top spoon below. I'm quite pleased with it.

The other spoon is something I finally finished after months. I wanted to try out a different shape, and had an idea about a spoon where the bowl went up the handle. Unfortunately I tried it on a bit of laburnum. The idea of shape didn't work to my satisfaction, the handle felt too wide and clunky, and the soft outer wood tended to tear out whilst the heartwood was like stone. It got abandoned, and just got harder. Well, I fished it out a day or so ago, hacked at it a bit more, and have spent most of the day sanding it until it is a reasonable spoon and the tool marks disappeared. In the end it looks ok, so the effort was worthwhile.

All of my current spoons will go into a sale for my local wildlife trust next month. Thanks for looking.

 

[Elen Sentier]

Oh nice! You'll have to give me lessons ... I'll teach you to spin in exchange . Must cut myself a piece of ivy tomorrow ...

Oh and can you read the owly pic better now ???

 

[Goatboy]

Really nice Harvestman, I really like the second spoon, just has a purposefulness, proportion and flowing lines that appeal to me.

GB.

 

[Harvestman]

I'm disappointed with my flat pictures, lacking all depth. Might try a few more.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[Harvestman]

Some better pictures.

First the cedar spoon. The handle shape is quite pleasing, as is the handle end of the bowl, an area I normally struggle with.

The laburnum spoon is difficult to show clearly, but these might help. The sapwood has a very subtle grain which doesn't come out well in these pics.

 

[Kepis]

Lovely job, never carved Cedar myself, but i know where there is a plantation of it not that far away, oh look that bit just fell off

 

[Mouse040]

Love the simple lines to the second one great job

 

[Macaroon]

Those are both very nice indeed..............the laburnum one is very like one I use to measure out the flour and milk powdwer for the bannock, the long bowl I find ideal for this; good stuff!.atb mac

 

[Marmite]

Great job I like them both

 

[Harvestman]

Lovely job, never carved Cedar myself, but i know where there is a plantation of it not that far away, oh look that bit just fell off

Be careful what you wish for. This bit was nice, but another bit that I had from the same tree was intensely resinous, and was like carving glass. It smells gorgeous though, like an old fashioned boiled sweet.

 

[Lyope]

Nice spoons!

I'm trying as hard as I can to resist the temptation to sand my spoons these days. When everything goes well, I much prefer the finish that I can get off the knife and generally speaking, if I'm not getting a smooth final cut, it means that:

My knives aren't sharp enough
My technique is lacking
I need to let the wood dry off a little for the last few finishing cuts because the grain is lifting

A lot of the spoons I make are for eating with and the mouth-feel of a spoon is really important to me. I don't know why it is, but a spoon which has been finished off the knife feels so much better. It also resists wear long-term better, too. The grain doesn't start to get ragged after repeated washing in hot water and you don't need to care for or oil the spoon as much.

Mainly, though - when I see the spoons that some of the best Swedish carvers make, very few of them use sandpaper. It's frustrating, but definitely something to aim at!

 

[Big Stu 12]

Like your spoons mate, must do one next meet did not do one the last two meets.....

 

[dwardo]

Very nice, great shape to them both.

 

[Harvestman]

Thanks everyone.