Beginner Hand Carving

To keep your hands out of harm’s way, work at the proper height with the cut angled away from your body and into the chopping block. You can use roasting to unwanted marks in the wood, or to deepen the colour of pale wood or uninteresting grain. This was such a fun experiment, I love how there are so many different ways to get the same results. I wiped off all the excess oil and then finished them off with Walrus Oil Wood Wax for some extra protection. The spoon rest I was making had an odd shape and the spokeshave would not fit. I like to refine the shape a bit with the spoke shave.

The other knife you’ll need is a straight knife for carving the outside of the spoon. You can start carving with these two knives, but it also helps to have a strop and a small hatchet for roughing in projects. https://carlcarver.jimdosite.com/blog/ You should strop your blades every 20 minutes or so to keep them razor sharp. It not only makes carving a spoon faster but more enjoyable as well. A small hatchet will remove large amounts of wood quickly.

Do You Really Want Wet Or Dry Wood?

When it comes out hot, put on a bit more oil and you can get a fantastic dark tone. My favorite thing about spoon carving is not having a plan and seeing where the wood and tools will take me. I love seeing all the facets from the carving knife on that handle, it sort of reminds me of a jewel. After carving them to their final shape I started to finish them with a card scraper. I was loving how that felt on the handles, so I decided to make a gooseneck card scraper to clean out the inside of the bowls.

• I’ve carved four or five since then, and while I’m no expert, I can show you what you need to get started.
• If that doesn’t matter, one certainly could choose to finish a spoon while it was still green, let it dry, then oil it.
• Paula Marcoux & I shot photos of the group as they worked their horses for the first time.
• I got lucky that day because he gave me a spoon carving kit so I could get started.
• Then I put it in my little lightbulb kiln at around 120 or 130 degrees Farenheit for another day or so.

Each step of the process, you’ll follow along with the instructor to make your own spoon to take home. You’ll also get to meet other carvers in the community and socialize while we carve. If you have tools or woods of your own you would like to use, you are welcome to bring those along too! Please bring water and any snacks you may want during the class. At the bare minimum, you’ll need a hook knife and a straight knife. You’ll need the hook knife to carve the concave part of the spoon, and it’s surprising how easy this is with a sharp knife.

Spalted Rainbow Poplar Wood Spoon Blanks For Spoon Carving (blankwood Supply Co)

First off, the new one won’t fall apart – I have 2 broken paperbacks of the 1978 book. For the spoon-crazies – this is where America first heard of Wille Sundqvist and carving spoons with axes and knives. 9 pages in the old book, 43 pages now, something like that. Similar story with the “half-log bowls” as they are called in the new edition.

I submerge the spoon in pure linseed oil for a day or two. Then I put it in my little lightbulb kiln at around 120 or 130 degrees Farenheit for another day or so. The one above is one of the spoons from the Norway maple firewood chunk.

If you have to, go very slowly and take great care, using just your thumb to push and control the blade, so the edge is less likely to glance away from the wood. You could even use a sturdy piece of leather to protect your legs or body, which can also double as your spoon/tool roll. If you do end up with a recently cut piece of wood – greenwood – don’t let it dry out while you carve as it will likely crack. Soak it in water between sessions and keep it wrapped up in a plastic bag to retain moisture.

You can either leave it with its raw, chipped finish – almost primitive-looking – as I like to do, or sand it smooth and give it a more refined feel. Bear in mind that once you start sanding, you won’t be able to carve it any more, as the sand particles will dull the knife. Don’t be too worried about small imperfections; most will soften up after a few weeks of use. Avoid cutting towards yourself by changing angles and the direction you hold your chunk of wood.

How Do I Sharpen My Knife?

For sharpening carving spoons, fine grit wet/dry sandpaper is probably the best. The abrasives I use are 400 grit, 600 grit, and 1,000 grit. To shape the inside of the spoon’s bowl, you can use a hook knife or the gouge. For my first spoons, I hollowed the bowl with a gouge (mine has a No. 8 sweep in the Swiss-made numbering system). Just as with the straight knife, you want to use your body and hands in such a way that you can cut efficiently, without having the tool’s edge land in your flesh.