It's in there Somewhere

 Spoons and chairs have much in common and some huge differences. One similarity that I've been noticing both while carving and chairmaking, is that I am constantly moving to get new views of the object. Both are absolutely 3 dimensional and must succeed from all angles. I enjoy the challenge.

On the other hand, the choice of trees for each couldn't be more different. For chairs, I want the most straight, boring tree possible, with no branches or curves in sight. But for spoons, I look for the wildest and waviest. I used to go to the woods looking for natural crooks in the trees to get the spoon crook, often leaving a bit disappointed at the scarcity of "perfect" crooks. But then I started horsing around with the branches and trunk union and now I see spoons everywhere!

Here is how the spoons look while still in the tree.  The natural curve of the fibers on the underside of the branch works great. The only issue is making sure that you don't include the pit from the trunk or branch in the final spoon.

 I like to start by splitting the trunk portion down the pith and then I generally find it easiest to saw down the branch and along the bottom of the bowl.

Of course, I have to say that using a bandsaw on odd shaped stock like this is ill advised. But it sure makes quick work of it. I haven't had good luck splitting down the branch portion. It just seems to crack up the wood and the tough union with the trunk isn't easy.

Here is the part of the trunk where I split along the pith. There is a bit of hatchet work to do.

Here I've used the hatchet to clean it up a bit, and I've drawn on the growth rings so that you can see how much I need to remove if I want the fibers to be continuous.  If you want a deeper spoon, you can just clean out the pith and use what's left.

Being a chairmaker, I decided to reach for my drawknife to follow the fibers out to the end.

Here is the result, you can start to see the spoon.

And since I've already broken the rules on safe bandsaw use, I finished off the roughing with some power.

It's a big blank that should make a good server.

Once I finish off roughing out the shape, I wrap the spoon in a cotton clothe for a few days to slow the drying process and prevent checking. A paper bag also works well.

I've been finishing up some chairs in the shop (yes, I still make chairs) and will post some images soon!

Real Tree Wood

I know that I've said it before, but here goes...If you want to learn about working wood, carve spoons. I was lucky enough to have Andy Jack helping me out recently after returning from a spoon carving class with Jogge Sunquist and he brought back some great tips about the tools, materials, geometry, and body technique. It's spurred me on to a flurry of production and now the hardest part of every meal is figuring out which utensil to use!

Early in my spoon carving, I used applewood almost exclusively. It's tough as nails and lovely to boot. When it's green, it carves relatively easy, so it's best to do as much as you can before it dries to stone.

The little paddle above can be made from relatively straight stock, and while it seems diminutive, I reach for it all the time when cooking. It does what every good tool should, it feels like a sensitive extension of my hand.

Here is another "paddle" that also has enough of a bowl to be a good serving spoon. The curved front also makes it very handy when cooking in a pan with curved sides. This one is maple and came not from a crook in the tree, but from a branch to trunk union. I've been using branching parts this way and having a lot of fun learning to follow the grain. If you do it right, the neck of the spoon is straight grained and strong and the bowl follows the grain as well so there is no short grain at the lead edge. You can't get much stronger, which lets me take away all that unnecessary wood.



Here you can see the "curly" area that is in every branch spoon where the wood takes the heavy turn. It's always fun to find.

 

Every time that I see a large limb in a tree that fell or that I cut, I can't help but think LADLE!! It's always an endeavor. This one out of maple took me nearly 5 hours to rough out. I know this because I started on it one night at 5:30 and the next time that I noticed my surroundings (yes, I know, my poor neglected wife) it was 10:30 and the rest of the house was dark!

 

I've taken to scraping and sanding the bowls lately, both to highlight the grain and sculptural quality, but it also makes cleaning easier.

 One of the great revelations that Andy returned with, was how much easier birch spoons are to carve. But the softness of the wood also calls for bolder decisions as each cut can be that much more direct and clear. Here are a couple that I roughed out the other night. These took just a few minutes a piece after I roughed them with an ax.

And finally, here is an eating spoon from a crook. I've been working on the shape of these to get the proper feel in the hand as well as comfortably delivering food to the mouth. It's fun because when I'm done, there is surprisingly little wood left.

There are some great videos on Youtube.com if you search spoon carving. I think my favorite is the Romanian Carver, his motions are so effective and concise. And this fellow is great with all sorts of old technology and way more efficient with his hatchet than me. If these guys don't make you trek out into the woods, nothing will.

This photo reminds me of Sue's reaction to seeing me in a magazine photo, she said "They photoshopped your hands, they're never that clean!" I could think that it's retaliation for my obsessive carving during "our time", but I'm afraid it's simply the truth.

New Forms

 

Two things that I've found to be essential to surviving the long cold winter nights here in New York are Dave Sawyer's firewood carriers (shown below with theirs proud owner David) and spoon carving. The carriers save my back and the spoons save my mind.

I'll be going into the spoon carving a bit more in the following post, but for now, I wanted to share some new techniques that I've been using to get better bends in my bent turnings.
This week, Chris Durbin returned from Ohio to make one of my birdcage armchairs. I've worked out a lot of techniques for working with all of the curved parts, but I kept having trouble with the slight "sideways" curve that sometimes occurred in the forms.

 

Here is the  bend in a new form that I made. If you look below, you'll see that I've made up the form from two bevelled pieces of plywood that cause the bend to center itself and eliminate any "sideways" curve. Having a straight axis really eliminates a lot of the difficulty of reaming these parts accurately into the seat.

The other benefit of the form is that the pressure of the form on the round workpiece is spread over a larger surface (two points of contact instead of one) so I got less denting of the steamed part as well. I use a shaped block and some dense felt as clamp pads to eliminate damage on the other side.

I am looking into dense felt suppliers to get material to line the form as well, why not?!

Below is Chris carving his duckbills, I love telling students that we'll be using the drawknife for most of this work, the terror is palpable!

And here he is with his finished piece. It came out great.