What do you use for spoon templates

[Hammock Hamster]

Hi all,

I'm getting increasingly more frustrated with cardboard templates falling apart and want to make something more permanent.

I've seen people like Lee Stoffer using rigid plastic that looks like they have been cut out of a sheet soft enough to be cut by scissors and am wondering what the material may be.

I know I can recycle and use pop bottles but suspect they will be slightly curved and like the idea of markings out several on a sheet.
My Google fu is failing as I can only find solid Perspex type sheets.

What say the collective hive mind of BCUk?


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[mikehill]

1mm pvc sheet should do you fine.

 

[Robson Valley]

Carve a template out of wood.

I've got a short stack of flexible plastic "cutting sheets" in the kitchen, 11" x 15".
They might go 1mm thick or less.
You dice a bunch of stuff then fold the sheet to funnel the food into a bowl.
They are cleaver-proof. Try a kitchen store.

 

[Mesquite]

I've used cut up 5 litre bottles before for that sort of plastic.

Also used these as well

 

[GGTBod]

so far i've never made two the same, i just wing it all the way

 

[John Fenna]

so far i've never made two the same, i just wing it all the way

Same here - the closest I come to a template is sometimes drawing around an existing bowl to get a rough size ...the rest is all by eye...

 

[Hammock Hamster]

Same here - the closest I come to a template is sometimes drawing around an existing bowl to get a rough size ...the rest is all by eye...

My main problem is I can't freehand worth a damn and like to keep as symmetrical as I can in the marking out stages.
Cardboard lets me lay out a general shape which then changes as I carve depending on the wood but they wear out quite quickly.

Will definitely be looking at the flexible chopping board idea.


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[Zingmo]

I used plastic file dividers. Found some that were sort of clear. I don't use them much though.

Establishing a centre-line is the important thing for me. For that I have a very bendy ruler so I can flex it around the crank. There are three points to line up; the tip of the bowl, the centre of the handle at the narrowest point by the bowl and the end of the handle. I often find that my over-enthusiastic chopping puts the narrow part of the handle off-centre, so I will have to adjust the handle or the bowl to line it all back up again.

Z

 

[Dean]

Use plastic milk cartons, that's what I use for student templates.

 

[Robson Valley]

Pacific Northwest native carvers have large collections of templates such as for eye parts in many sizes.
Their traditional material has been birch bark. Given pole carving intervals, they didn't see much use
such as the thin plastic sheet that many here suggest.

 

[Janne]

mmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[TarHeelBrit]

Plasticard is your friend here. It's sheets of A4 size plastic in varying thicknesses easy to cut with a knife or scissors. Have a look in your local model shop or online at Hannants.

https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?search=Plasticard

 

[Robson Valley]

I've made carvings where I needed parts in repetition, the same size and shape.
Other times, the template was a starting point with the design(s) shifted around.

I need a template for a Raven. Life size or bigger, stylized design. I need 4 of them, pretty much the same.
This one will be plastic as so many suggest.

As much as I like the regularity of a well carved spoon, I hope that they never look machine made.
The "free-style" spoons that I've seen here in BCUK would be wonderful on a table set for 8 people!

 

[Janne]

Mmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Robson Valley]

I never made a list of the carvers.
There's a bunch of spoon carvers in BCUK who entertain my every chance to see their work.
Skip the conventional. The Brits in BCUK have a great variety of design ideas.

 

[ocean1975]

You can pick up thin plastic food prep sheets cheap enough these days,all in different colours.Should do the trick.

 

[Hammock Hamster]

Thanks all, I have some plasticard and a cheap pack of flexible cutting boards on route, will post some picks of the results.


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[Hammock Hamster]

Thought I'd do a quick update after a quiet hour in my workshop yesterday.
Good call on the cheaply cutting boards and I still have two left for more designs.

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[Geebe]

+1 on the milk cartons. Always nice to recycle and you can see through them to avoid knots etc.

 

[Hammock Hamster]

+1 on the milk cartons. Always nice to recycle and you can see through them to avoid knots etc.

Surely the knots just add to the challenge? ☺️


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