Spoon carving

I have an interest in spoon carving and was wondering if there were any
experienced spoon carvers who would care to comment on tools and technique
for carving and finishing the bowl of the spoon?

On 2 Jan 2005 10:38:12 -0600, "Dan Farrow"
wrote:

I have an interest in spoon carving and was wondering if there were any
experienced spoon carvers who would care to comment on tools and technique
for carving and finishing the bowl of the spoon?

I use a hooked knife and I have several. The scandanavian pattern with
the 3/4 circle blade is the cheapest ( $20) and works just fine. You
really only need one, but I keep experimenting. (Okay, I'm a hopeless
tool freak and my carving chest shows it!)

As for finish, I prefer not to sand mine, even around the bowl, since
I think minor tool marks add to the effect.

I generally either don't use finish at all or simply buff on a coat of
wax. In the case of kitchen spoons that are going to be used, I leave
them unfinished.

There are probably as many different ways to do these things as there
are carvers. Experiment and find what works best for you.

--RC
"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells
'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets
fly with a club.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

What's your objective? Are you after "users," "lookers,"or carving
tours-de-force?

I make and sell a couple-three hundred "users" every year with mainly (1
1/2" #8) gouge, scorp and spokeshave(s). They don't have exotic carvings to
collect gunk from use, are normally double curved for knuckle clearance, and
the bowls are contoured to stir and scoop with natural motions. Since any
irregularity will make proper cleaning difficult, they're sanded smooth
inside and out the bowl.

I like cherry, because it's easy to work with, resists mildew well, and
looks good on the shelf, though I've made them in a half-dozen other woods.
I use a "finish" of walnut oil to help them shed stain and moisture until
they get worked in.

"Dan Farrow" wrote in message
...
I have an interest in spoon carving and was wondering if there were any
experienced spoon carvers who would care to comment on tools and technique
for carving and finishing the bowl of the spoon?

wrote in
:


I use a hooked knife and I have several. The scandanavian pattern with
the 3/4 circle blade is the cheapest ( $20) and works just fine.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

Okay. I'm new to carving. A Real green horn. So where could I find the
item that you mention above? I thought that carving spoons would be easy.
Found a book on carving celtic spoons, and love spoons. Seems to be the
kind that you would just look at, and not use. I would like mine to be
useful. Is there a book on carving spoons to be used? Anywhere on the
internet that I might find some information, and maybe a pattern or two?

Thank you for your time!

Bob,
London, KY

I too have become interesting in spoon carving. I've been bowl turning on a
lathe now for a about a year and after going to a recent craft show and
seeing a booth with handcarved spoons, it made we want to learn how to do
that. So far, I've carved two...both out of scrap pine I had laying around
the shop. I already had an old carving knife but I needed some other tools
to hollow our the spoon. I went to Harbor Freight and bought cheap set of 5
carving blades (various gouges and chisels). They don't stay sharp very
long but they've been okay for my learning process. I have ordered a couple
of gouges from Flexcut and a Butz carving knife from Woodcraft......they're
pretty inexpensive but supposed to be good quality.

I also wanted to carve usable wooden spoon. As for patterns, I've used
none. I just used a pencil and sketched out what I though I wanted the spoon
to look like on the hunk of wood then carved everything else away. The
first one was just a plain straight spoon about 10" long and the second is
more "goose neck" shaped and about 12 inches long and larger "bowl". The
hardest part to me so far has been trying to get the handles straight. But
to be honest, after I look at them completed, I like them a little
crooked........Shows that they were hand carved and not turned on the lathe.

I did some google'ing on carving spoons and found the SpoonLady's site
listed below that had a small howto and what tools are needed. Go take a
look. It might be helpful to you. The site is:
http://www.spoonlady.com/hothow.htm

I've only been doing this now for about a week and have found that I really
like it. When I was growing up, I whittled all of the time. My goal back
then was just to make big sticks into smaller sticks. But now it's kinda
cool to watch a spoon appear a hunk of wood.

Walker


"BobLondonKy" wrote in message
2...
wrote in
:


I use a hooked knife and I have several. The scandanavian pattern with
the 3/4 circle blade is the cheapest ( $20) and works just fine.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

Okay. I'm new to carving. A Real green horn. So where could I find the
item that you mention above? I thought that carving spoons would be easy.
Found a book on carving celtic spoons, and love spoons. Seems to be the
kind that you would just look at, and not use. I would like mine to be
useful. Is there a book on carving spoons to be used? Anywhere on the
internet that I might find some information, and maybe a pattern or two?

Thank you for your time!

Bob,
London, KY

I have found the small circular scraper sold by Lee Valley to be very handy
for finishing the inside of spoons.
Dave

"Dave W" wrote in message
...
I have found the small circular scraper sold by Lee Valley to be very
handy
for finishing the inside of spoons.
Dave


It's even called a spoon scraper, but it'll also take the burn off a cove
routed in cherry, too. Good tool for turners to use when removing the
botton at the inside bottom of a bowl, or to scrape the traces of a tenon
off the outside.

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 07:37:13 -0600, BobLondonKy
wrote:

wrote in
:


I use a hooked knife and I have several. The scandanavian pattern with
the 3/4 circle blade is the cheapest ( $20) and works just fine.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

Okay. I'm new to carving. A Real green horn. So where could I find the
item that you mention above?

It's made by Frosts, a Swedish firm, and imported by several
companies. I get mine from
http://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html

Good people, in my experience.

I thought that carving spoons would be easy.

It is, basically. How much you go beyond the basic determines how
complex it gets.

Found a book on carving celtic spoons, and love spoons. Seems to be the
kind that you would just look at, and not use. I would like mine to be
useful. Is there a book on carving spoons to be used?

Carving spoons to use is so simple that there isn't much available on
it. You can take the patterns and stuff for the more complex spoons
and modify them to remove the fancy handles and stuff.

"Spoons to use" covers a lot of ground, however. They range all the
way from things with bowls so shallow they're almost paddles (good for
stirring) to deep-bowled spoons to ladles. Decide the use you want to
put the spoon to and that will determine the details of the design.


Anywhere on the internet that I might find some information, and maybe a pattern or two?

They are fancy spoons, but I'm partial to Lorna Irish's tutorial on
spoon carving at www.carvingpatterns.com

Thank you for your time!

Bob,
London, KY

Enjoy!
--RC

"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells
'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets
fly with a club.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 10:20:16 -0500, "Dave W"
wrote:

I have found the small circular scraper sold by Lee Valley to be very handy
for finishing the inside of spoons.
Dave

Specialized scrapers can be very handy. I make mine out of the blades
of cheap Japanese saws with impulse hardened teeth. The saws aren't
re-sharpenable, so I cut scrapers and such from the high quality steel
when the teeth get dull or broken.

The only thing about a scraper is you do need to learn how to sharpen
it. You can find lot of information on that over in the woodworking
newsgroup.

--RC
"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells
'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets
fly with a club.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

wrote in message
...

The only thing about a scraper is you do need to learn how to sharpen
it. You can find lot of information on that over in the woodworking
newsgroup.

Unfortunately, that information will be for scrapers designed for flat work.
You can dispense with the burr turning and allow the work and your attack
angle to do the job in most cases. Draw with a bit of shear for the best
finish.

Guy who taught me used to use pieces of broken glass.