5th September 2007
Had kippers for breakfast this morning. Arrived on site just as the gate was opening at 9. Today I'm doing spoon carving with Dave.
We started off the day trying to identify a selection of logs. Silver Birch was the only one I recognised. The others were Hazel, Cherry, Field Maple, Pear, Alder, and Sycamore. As I have a lot of Sycamore available I decided to work with that one.
We started by cutting a billet to the exact length required, and then split it in half. We then marked up and removed both the pith and sapwood, leaving a small plank. This is because these are the most unstable parts of the wood. Next we drew a plan view of the spoon onto the wide face. Using a hatchet we then removed most of the waste wood, always working downhill. To make accurate cuts knock both the billet and the axe together against the chopping block. Next we drew out the profile onto the newly created side face, and again removed most of the wood with the hatchet, working the back first, leaving the bowl face for now.
Using the carving knife we cleaned up the back face using a variety of cutting techniques. Then we marked the transition from bowl to handle by making a stop-cut. The top face of the handle was then carved. We created the rake on the spoon by using the axe to remove wood in a line from the tip of the bowl, down to the bottom of the stop-cut.
The next phase is to mark and hollow out the bowl, leaving about 2mm around the lip. The final carving step was to tidy everything up with the carving knife.
The final wood-removal phase is to sand everything down starting with 120 grit to remove all imperfections, and then working down to about a 400 grit. We used wet & dry paper. To finish it off it can be treated with any vegetable oil applied with a rag. In the end I used Walnut oil on mine.
Finished just before 5pm. Afterwards I went into Tetbury to fill up the car and get some baked potatoes for this evening's meal. Spuds were cooked in the fire. Left the site about 9pm.
We started off the day trying to identify a selection of logs. Silver Birch was the only one I recognised. The others were Hazel, Cherry, Field Maple, Pear, Alder, and Sycamore. As I have a lot of Sycamore available I decided to work with that one.
We started by cutting a billet to the exact length required, and then split it in half. We then marked up and removed both the pith and sapwood, leaving a small plank. This is because these are the most unstable parts of the wood. Next we drew a plan view of the spoon onto the wide face. Using a hatchet we then removed most of the waste wood, always working downhill. To make accurate cuts knock both the billet and the axe together against the chopping block. Next we drew out the profile onto the newly created side face, and again removed most of the wood with the hatchet, working the back first, leaving the bowl face for now.
Using the carving knife we cleaned up the back face using a variety of cutting techniques. Then we marked the transition from bowl to handle by making a stop-cut. The top face of the handle was then carved. We created the rake on the spoon by using the axe to remove wood in a line from the tip of the bowl, down to the bottom of the stop-cut.
The next phase is to mark and hollow out the bowl, leaving about 2mm around the lip. The final carving step was to tidy everything up with the carving knife.
The final wood-removal phase is to sand everything down starting with 120 grit to remove all imperfections, and then working down to about a 400 grit. We used wet & dry paper. To finish it off it can be treated with any vegetable oil applied with a rag. In the end I used Walnut oil on mine.
Finished just before 5pm. Afterwards I went into Tetbury to fill up the car and get some baked potatoes for this evening's meal. Spuds were cooked in the fire. Left the site about 9pm.
Labels: course, crafts, Spoon, westonbirt
posted by Graham | 11:54
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