Thought I'd show you what I made this week.
I want to try my hand at a bit of carving. Quite fancy making a noggin so thought I'd practice doing a spoon first, as it's a bit smaller. But I don't have any specialist tools ; just bush knife, saw and axe.
Well, after a really, really poor result whereupon I learned that it's easier to make a colander or tea strainer than a spoon because it's very hard to carve the spoon's bowl with a straight knife, I decided I should consider a crook knife.
But I don't want to splash out on one of those without knowing how useful it would be. So I decided to make one for two reasons: To minimise spend and, as I've never done any smithing, to have a bash at that as well.
Last weekend I bought myself a £3 chef knife from The Range. I chose the thickest, stiffest blade and went for a full tang plastic-scales handle design rather than what I think are the hollow welded-on metal handles:
Then I annealed the blade using a blow torch, cut a sliver about four inches long to shape, ground a bevel on my bench grinder, drilled two mounting holes for a handle, sharpened and shaped it into a curve. I went for quite a curved shape. Then hardened and then tempered the blade, again with the torch. After cooling and honing the blade I cut a piece of hardwood dowel (I think it was a curtain pole once) to serve as a rough and ready handle. Here's what I ended up with:
Here's another pic. Remember, this is a test piece to see how useful I would find a crook knife would be. So 'pleasing to the eye' wasn't a priority.
I got a reasonable curve but there is the odd flat and kink or angle in it. I got the hardening and tempering right-ish - the blade is stiff and holds its edge. The handle will do for now - not great but no blisters after an hour's use. As this thread's title says: it ain't pretty but it's functional.
And this is what I made, just using my axe and the crook knife. Again, not pretty but I'm really pleased with it as a first effort and it has proved to me how incredibly useful a crook knife is. Hollowing the out bowl was a piece of cake. The wood is green hazel I cut last weekend. It was very wet when I split it this afternoon and was quite soft to carve. Having read a lot of info on this forum - thanks everyone; all very sound advice and examples - the spoon is now drying in a paper bag. I hope it will dry hard and not split:
And...
All the tool marks are there although I gave it a very light sanding. I'm sure all you seasoned (pun intended!) woodworkers will read the marks, cuts and divots like a book, and I'm under no illusions about my level of skill. But for a first time and as a test of the crook knife, I'm really quite pleased with it.
And...
I really enjoyed making the knife and the spoon. So I now know how useful a crook knife is, which was the object of the exercise. I also learned a lot about carving. I'm wondering whether to make a flatter-curved shorter blade next, as I can get at least three blades from the cook's knife, or whether to be a devil and buy a pukka knife that, because it will be better made should be easier to use than my prototype. What do you think?
Oh, and I followed the instructions on Cariboo Blades site for heat treating the blade.
Hope you found this interesting. Thanks for reading,
Jandude
I want to try my hand at a bit of carving. Quite fancy making a noggin so thought I'd practice doing a spoon first, as it's a bit smaller. But I don't have any specialist tools ; just bush knife, saw and axe.
Well, after a really, really poor result whereupon I learned that it's easier to make a colander or tea strainer than a spoon because it's very hard to carve the spoon's bowl with a straight knife, I decided I should consider a crook knife.
But I don't want to splash out on one of those without knowing how useful it would be. So I decided to make one for two reasons: To minimise spend and, as I've never done any smithing, to have a bash at that as well.
Last weekend I bought myself a £3 chef knife from The Range. I chose the thickest, stiffest blade and went for a full tang plastic-scales handle design rather than what I think are the hollow welded-on metal handles:
Then I annealed the blade using a blow torch, cut a sliver about four inches long to shape, ground a bevel on my bench grinder, drilled two mounting holes for a handle, sharpened and shaped it into a curve. I went for quite a curved shape. Then hardened and then tempered the blade, again with the torch. After cooling and honing the blade I cut a piece of hardwood dowel (I think it was a curtain pole once) to serve as a rough and ready handle. Here's what I ended up with:
Here's another pic. Remember, this is a test piece to see how useful I would find a crook knife would be. So 'pleasing to the eye' wasn't a priority.
I got a reasonable curve but there is the odd flat and kink or angle in it. I got the hardening and tempering right-ish - the blade is stiff and holds its edge. The handle will do for now - not great but no blisters after an hour's use. As this thread's title says: it ain't pretty but it's functional.
And this is what I made, just using my axe and the crook knife. Again, not pretty but I'm really pleased with it as a first effort and it has proved to me how incredibly useful a crook knife is. Hollowing the out bowl was a piece of cake. The wood is green hazel I cut last weekend. It was very wet when I split it this afternoon and was quite soft to carve. Having read a lot of info on this forum - thanks everyone; all very sound advice and examples - the spoon is now drying in a paper bag. I hope it will dry hard and not split:
And...
All the tool marks are there although I gave it a very light sanding. I'm sure all you seasoned (pun intended!) woodworkers will read the marks, cuts and divots like a book, and I'm under no illusions about my level of skill. But for a first time and as a test of the crook knife, I'm really quite pleased with it.
And...
I really enjoyed making the knife and the spoon. So I now know how useful a crook knife is, which was the object of the exercise. I also learned a lot about carving. I'm wondering whether to make a flatter-curved shorter blade next, as I can get at least three blades from the cook's knife, or whether to be a devil and buy a pukka knife that, because it will be better made should be easier to use than my prototype. What do you think?
Oh, and I followed the instructions on Cariboo Blades site for heat treating the blade.
Hope you found this interesting. Thanks for reading,
Jandude
