Anyone carve wooden spoons?

[phillipsted]

I started to get into carving wooden spoons lately. It is a very relaxing and therapeutic activity after a long day at work. I'm a relative newbie at this, although I did a fair bit of carving years ago. A lot of folks carve spoons out of green wood, but I've been carving them out of scrap cutoffs salvaged from the bins of my local hardwood dealer/cabinetmaker. I finish them by coating them in Odie's Oil (a food-safe mixture of beeswax and mineral oil), letting it soak in, wiping them down, then letting them air cure for a week before use. Here are some of my most recent creations - all of which are in use in my kitchen.

From left-to-right and top-to-bottom:

1. Ladle made from a piece of oddly-shaped mahogany 12/4 millwork

2. Small spoon made from a different hunk of mahogany

3. Pancake turner carved from a piece of 6/4 x 6" bloodwood

4. Small ladle from a different piece of scrap bloodwood

5. Two "scraper" spoons carved from the same piece of walnut


Anyone else into hand-carving utensils?

TedP

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[.357 mag]

Wow!! Great work! How are you "digging" out the spoon. I've heard of burning them out and well as scooping them out.

[Pinetreebbs]

That is some excellent work!

[OldSarSwmr]

Great looking utensils Ted. The ladle and the pancake flipper are my favorite!

[SpyderNut]

Beautifully done, Ted. I've always wanted to give spoon/utensil carving a try.

[Evil D]

Never have but I would love to get into it, I just need the proper wood and a gouge to cut out the spoon portion. I would love to cook with utensils I made myself.

[phillipsted]

It is actually pretty easy to do. You start with a block of wood and cut away everything that doesn't look like a spoon...

(Badda boom!)

I've begun roughing out my utensils on the bandsaw - cutting them into rough rectangular shape. That saves a lot of time hogging off material, and allows me to focus more on the actual carving.

There are two really good tools that make carving out the bowl of the spoon much more helpful. The first is called a scorp, and it is basically a carving knife with a curved hook blade that allows you to make a "paring" style cut into the bowl.



The second tool is a spoon or bent gouge. Like the name implies, it is bent into the shape of a spoon. But instead of being sharpened on the side like the scorp, it is sharpened on the end like a gouge. This enables you to make push cuts with your palm or even a small mallet. Sometimes, this is much safer that putting your thumb in the path of the scorp...



TedP