Spoon carving

[Shuya]

Hi folks,

since my job and family tend to stress me out a bit at the moment I try to get some fresh air whenever I can.
Whittling and carving keeps the head clear of dark clouds and thoughts. Somehow like meditation.

I am far from the skills some people present here at the forum from time to time, but thats not the goal, I just like to do something.

Thanks for watching.

Step 1: rough shaping of a birch limb with axe.

[Shuya]

Step 2: finer tuning with knife.

Step 3: hollowing with spoon knife. Was "lucky" I had a knot where the spoon will be. But managed to work around that, even when it was a bit harder.

Now my daughter has a new spoon for playing with.

[comis]

   That's actually pretty well made, great job!

[SirVicaLot]

 

[jaya_man]

Awarded...

[kottskrapa]

Nice work!

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[zoidberg]

   

[spudley112]

I love whittling and making spoons is one of my favorite tasks when sitting around the campfire.

My family has an annual BBQ cookoff competition on the family farm. A few years ago I whittled out a large 3 prong fork for my cousin to use on the brisket he was smoking. I never really thought much more about it but he really liked it and has been using it for years now.

[Aloha]

What a fun way to relax and de stress.  Nice spoon too. 

[Outback in Idaho]

  Very well done. Wished I knew how to carve spoons, make forks, and knives from wood. Bought some spoons from Montana, had one split on me, but replaced it. I prefer them over metal spoons any day of the week. Wooden spreaders are also awesome!

  Would like to make my own spoon though. Be catered to me, like with a large holding area, deep enough, and can fit well. Could take one with me to a local Chinese restaurant and eat egg flour soup from that utensil that's only been in my mouth. Hate spoons that barely hold a thing and dribble too easily.

  Don't know about which woods are best, but can find that online I suppose. And seen these Viking-like mugs made of wood, but the makers was close to $100 or more for such a thing. /boggle 

[Shuya]

  Very well done. Wished I knew how to carve spoons, make forks, and knives from wood. Bought some spoons from Montana, had one split on me, but replaced it. I prefer them over metal spoons any day of the week. Wooden spreaders are also awesome!

  Would like to make my own spoon though. Be catered to me, like with a large holding area, deep enough, and can fit well. Could take one with me to a local Chinese restaurant and eat egg flour soup from that utensil that's only been in my mouth. Hate spoons that barely hold a thing and dribble too easily.

  Don't know about which woods are best, but can find that online I suppose. And seen these Viking-like mugs made of wood, but the makers was close to $100 or more for such a thing. /boggle

Its fairly easy to make a spoon when you have a small axe, a good carving knive (good and comfortable handle and a rather short blade), and a spoon carving knife, mine is from Mora and works really well.
Try it, its not hard. You can use the steps pointed above.
For wood: stick to hardwood (for me the english word is rather confusing, in german we distinguish wood for having needles or leaves, you should stick to ones with leaves for having no splinters. Start with soft wood, birch is good, basswood too if I translated it correctly. Hasel is also good but much harder.
Avoid anything that is known as poisonous, as is can irritate your skin while working or can cause problems when using it.

Those cups (kuksa or kasa) are amazing, bought one years ago in Sweden on a backpacking trip, love it. Maybe I will do one myself at one time.

[Outback in Idaho]

  Could you recommend certain types of tools? I have an axe, somewhere... though it was more for chopping firewood in the cabin I used to live in. About the only thing portable that I use is a Scourge kukri, and that's one mean axe. Guess is I was going to try for an axe award it would not be accepted by the norms. (Is there a khukuri/kukri award by chance?) Took it camping a while back, it did rather well.
 
  Do have a smaller one that I had as a kid. Will have to figure out where it got stored at... Been a while. It's mostly steel with a wooden handle.

  Will have to look up Mora carving items then too. Big thanks! And, hey, great definitions on the wood. Part I miss about living in the mountains is that living down here in the flatlands one tends to forget the stuff they learned from being separated. /sigh


  Wonder how one carves a Kuska? There definitely needs to be a Kuska award if someone does make one. Or, perhaps, a 30 day Kuska and/or wooden utensil challenge. Hmm... 


  Will have to give spoon carving a whirl. Know the landlord chopped down a few fruit trees. Made a Lagerphone out of one, though not sure if plum would make a a good spoon or not. Might have to try out a new hobby. Thanks mate!

[Outback in Idaho]

Awarded...

 Congratulations, Shuya, on the award, and for the pictorial carving introduction. 

[Shuya]

For Tool recomendation.:
Small Axe (I have Fiskars X7, but for pure carving the smaller version X5 could be used, I use mine with the hand at the middle of the shaft for precise chopping. Looking at the Gansfors Mini Axe, see if I can get the money for that. Most important is a good sharp edge, my axe is as sharp as my knife.

Good carving knife:
First I was not a friend of scandi blades, but the thin Helle blades hold a good edge, after this carving 5 strops on the leather and it was hair popping sharp again.
Budget version would be some Mora Carving blades or a Mora Carbon knife (for me a max70mm blade works well), go for a knife with a good handle, those scandi knifes are great for that, small neck knifes are not.
Higher priced knifes I would look at are the Roselli UHC blade.
No need for fancy full tang prybars, the rat tail tang blades are good, you will never pry with these.


Spoon knives:
Mora again makes some good ones. Go for the ones with the smallest bend, (smallest diameter of bend blade) as you can make smaller spoons. mine is 15mm if I remember correctly.


So the budget set (Fiskars axe and mora knives) are under 100Euros and can work good.

[Shuya]

Another example of my carving blades is this one.
Full length birch/antler grip, rat tail tang and a short carbon blade with a rather flat scandi grind down to zero from 2.5mm, with a microbevel from leather strop.
Freaking sharp.

Also bought years ago in sweden, not sure about the maker.