Added Class and Spoon Video!

As I mentioned in the recent post, I have been batting the idea of teaching a perch class back and forth with my friends at Lie-Nielsen this summer and we finally pulled the trigger. It's a two day class and spaces are limited to 10 students. Check out their site for the details.

This is one of my favorite chair projects. I did all the writing for my book sitting on one, so I assure you, it's a comfortable seat!



 Jon Binzen is somewhat of an unsung hero in the world of woodworking. He has been creating the back cover for Fine Woodworking for many years as well as some of it's best features. I've been lucky enough to work with Jon a few times and recently, with his help and advocacy, I wrote an article for Fine Woodworking on spoon carving. It's been a long time since the magazine featured spoon carving and I'm proud to be in it. That said, there are lots of great spoon carvers out there and I can name a few that I think deserve to be heard more than me. Jon also shot a video about my spoons that you can see here.

Spoons for Hunger is Back!

I was out working on a maple tree yesterday and saw so many lovely spoon blanks in it that I thought it was about time to start up the Spoons for Hunger project again.

 For those who don't know, here's how it works. I use my nervous energy to make spoons and then I put them up on the blog for sale and if you are interested, you can email me.

 I put the names in a hat after a couple of days and pick a winner. Then you get a spoon and I sent the proceeds to aid hunger relief. I'm looking forward to a long winter by the fire kicking out spoons!

 This monster cherry ladle is $210. I have more to come that are smaller and a bit less expensive, so stay tuned. Thanks for joining in and please let me know if you have a favorite hunger relief organization.

Impossible

It is impossible to hang out with Peter Follansbee, as I did last weekend, and not come home and spend a day on the porch carving spoons.

 

We do things a bit differently, but he was downright inspiring. I was also thrilled to spend time with all the other great folks at the Lie-Nielsen open house. It would be difficult to convey exactly how wonderfully they treated us and how generous they were.

Here is the finished spoon, made from apple wood.

It's a good eating spoon. I would be happy to sell it for $55 and $5 shipping if anyone is interested. I'll draw names if I get more than one buyer. For the moment, I am going to keep proceeds from my spoon sales to help with the bills, but I hope to continue the Spoons for Hunger project once things settle down a bit.

Thanks to all the folks who have reached out to offer solace and comfort lately. Transitions are never easy and your kindness is much appreciated. I'm sure that quilting guilds and dog clubs are full of great folks, but I can't help but think that woodworkers are the kindest lot there is.

Breaking the rules, but not the edges

In finishing up the walnut rocker this week, I figured it might be worth sharing some of the techniques that I use to get fluid shapes and crisp edges. Walnut has such a clarity in grain and texture, that it calls for extra attention when treating the surfaces. While many of the parts are shaved with a spokeshave to their final state, such as the legs, others, where I want to stress the shape and wood grain are scraped and sanded.





There is a rule of thumb when it comes to shaving, scraping and sanding. You don't follow sandpaper with an edge tool. The sandpaper leaves grit embedded in the surface that can dull or cause minute chipping of the blade, and generally, I adhere to this principle. But in this case, I bend or even break the rules to get the desired result.

After my initial scraping, it sand the carved area with 220 grit sandpaper and a felt block. I try to be very thorough in producing and even scratch pattern. After I've done this though, invariably, I notice the unevenness that I missed in the scraping. So I pull out the scraper again and lightly scrape the surface, and the low spots remain dull while the highs get cut. It's always surprising how much this helps the overall shape become fluid.

I figure that the scraper is an intermediate tool anyway, and easy to sharpen, so I don't mind following the sandpaper. Then I sand again through to 320 grit and feel the surface with my hand flat on the seat, quickly running it in all directions to feel for more subtle discrepancies.

I don't carve a gutter in seats that are left natural, preferring to leave a simple, clean transition from the carved area to the flat. This can be tough to  do, and makes me realize that the gutter isn't just decorative, but serves as a sort of trim, to help cover the sins of less than perfect transitions!

To get the sharp edge that I want, requires first that the carved shape be even and fluid. I do this as normal, with a travisher, scraper and then sandpaper. But sanding a perfect edge into the transition can be tough because it's actually quite an obtuse angle.

But I still try my best. Now here is where I really break the rules. I reach for my handplane to surface the flat. Before I do this, I brush the surface and use a microfiber cloth to remove as much of the embedded grit as I can. Then I plane down a few shavings and the crisp edge appears.

As I said, this only works if the carved shape and surface is even and fluid. But it solves the transition issue in a wood that shows every detail.

Here is the seat after the whole deck has been planed.

Here is the latest spoon available for purchase! So please email me if you want your name put in the hat.

This is apple wood and has some striking figuring in the bowl. It's $45 plus $5 shipping.

It is a good shape for all around kitchen use. Good luck!

Inspiration Drops by for a Visit

Today, Erik Buchakian stopped by the house and shop. Eric is another local resident here in the southern Catskills and we share a passion for spoon carving. Eric is also on the Board at Drew Langsner's Country Workshops and has taken classes with and befriended the Sunquist family. Wille and Jogge Sundquist are the renowned woodworkers and carvers that have inspired so many to pick up a knife and work some wood. Wille was in Fine Woodworking back when they would still take photos of you in nothing but jean shorts and a hatchet!






Eric brought along his collection of Sunquist spoons. The red ones are by the son Jogge and the others are Willes'. It was like having the museum come to me!

Here are some close ups.

One of the areas that I've yet to become comfortable with is designing pattern and detailing, these pieces show such mastery, that I am going to work at it.

These are so soulful that you just have to hold them.

This salad fork was especially eye catching.

I loved the shape of this spoon, and the utility of it makes perfect sense, it gets into squared or rounded containers. I've been working on leaving consistent facets on my unsanded spoons, but this shows just how far I have to go.

The play of thick and thin is especially dramatic in this side view.

I've never gotten to see spoons by these guys up close. Like most true mastery, they ring of simplicity and clarity. Thanks Erik for the great visit!

On other spoon related news, Harry Miller won the latest drawing for the Spoons for Hunger drawing. I have been busy making more (ah winter) and will post the next one early next week. 

Master of the Craft

Call it delusion, hubris, ego, whatever you will, but I have mastered the craft.

 

 That's right, I can make the perfect poached egg. When Andy Jack was here over the summer, we had a friendly competition to see who could make the best poached egg. I was a bit new to the open pot of water technique, so my early eggs were a bit mangled. What I was lacking was the right tool!

Recently, I was carving into this amazing crook from an apple tree when I realized that it was too shallow too be a ladle and too bent to be a server, so I decided that I'd give a strainer a shot. To make the holes, I drilled out the pattern and then used my little plumbers reamer to get the size. But, I didn't like the ragged look of the holes, so I used my torch to heat an old file that I ground to a taper and singed the insides, which created a lovely contrast and it was fun to boot!

So as usual, I'll let you in on my secret. First, go wrestle an egg from your chicken. My girls have defied all expectation and kept laying without heat or light. Treat your workers right!

First, boil the water to a rolling boil and then use end of the handle to swirl the water. Add a dash of vinegar (which helps the whites stay together).

Then, dump the egg or eggs in the middle of the whirlpool and use the handle again to get the whirlpool moving again.

Then, turn down the heat and cover for about 2 minutes. Then grab your trusty strainer spoon and fish em out. Take that Andy!

Besides my strainer, I've been making other applewood spoons recently for the Spoons for Hunger Project. Here is the next entry for the drawing.

It's all heart wood and I think it will make a great little stirrer and server. 

This one is $35, plus $6 shipping, all of the proceeds going to Heifer International to purchase a flock of chickens, so that my poaching method can become known around the world. For more info on the project please look at the sidebar.

Thanks to everyone who keeps entering the drawing, I appreciate your patience and wish you luck!

Winter Blues

I don't know about you, but this week brought the winter blues along with it. We keep getting snow, not too bad, just enough to be a pain. Even my intrepid caprines have been expressing dismay.

This week I had Dean Stampfli from Ohio in the shop building a continuous arm. Below, he is using the reamer in the brace. I am becoming a real fan of this set up. The shame is, Dean has no idea how tough a learning curve most folks face reaming, He just flew right through it! I think that having the central hold on the brace makes all the difference.

Here is his finished chair.

And for those of you eagerly awaiting the drawing from the most recent spoon, the Chair Notes covergirl, in her finest sweatshirt and knit hat, picked Mark Fasching's name out of the hat! Thanks again to all those who put their name in. I'll be posting a new spoon this week.

Friend or Foe

Rot, I've fought it for the last ten years. That terrible feeling I'd get when splitting open a maple log in August to find the black streaks that mark the beginning of spalting. Now I know that you bowl folks are crazy for the stuff, but to me, it just meant rot. I couldn't put the stuff in my chairs for fear of the weakening effect of the degradation. I suppose that this influenced my inability to see it as "beautiful"

But now, all that has changed. I've found that most of my apple trees exhibit at least some spalting down near the base of the trunk. I still seemed to avoid the stuff, but the other day I came across this little piece.  I love not only the way that the heartwood looks, but the way that the pristine sapwood reflects the concept of the living sapwood being protected from rot until it's cut down.



I'm afraid that this little spoon isn't going to make the spoon drawings, the Chairnotes covergirl used her veto power on that one (I guess there is a price to be paid for filling the living room with shavings!)

But here is the latest entry into the Spoons for Hunger drawing,

Once again, it's applewood, all heart this time,

This spoon is $50 plus $6 shipping.

I enjoyed playing with the slightly conical bowl on this one,

For more info on the project and how to enter, please click here.
 

Results

Congratulations Kevin Adams, his name was drawn from the hat this morning in our celebrity packed ceremony! He will soon be serving up heaping mounds of scalloped potatoes with his new spoon and a bunch of chickens will be on their way to their new home. Thanks for all of you who wrote in!

 I've got another spoon (or 5 in the works, so stay tuned for another drawing soon)

Here is the walnut crest that I bent with my strap form. I was blown away by the way that it held the knot at the top of the crest so perfectly. I had my student stand by with a clamp and as the bend got to the position of the knot, he clamped directly over the knot and then I finished the bend.



Knots tend to kink a bend and cause a break, which is why I am so impressed with this result.

I had a visitor to the shop yesterday. Fine Woodworking sent Ed Pirnik out to shoot a couple of videos to go along with the articles that are coming out soon.

I must admit that it was a bit awkward for me to shoot a video with all of the bright lights and a cameraman, but he was very professional and I think that the videos will be great. Thanks Ed!