Saturday 30 March 2013

Spoon carving tutorial Pt3

So this is the shape we have so far. Next I'm going to remove more material from the upper surface to reflect the crank you can along the underside.

The lowest point of the crank on the top surface should be about a third of the way along the bowl from where the handle joins. This equates to the lowest point of the underside if that makes sense. To achieve this I'm going to work downwards from both the handle and the front rim of the bowl to the said point.
Above coming down from the handle with a stop cut. And below carefully working from the front rim the slicing across the bowl.
Now working on the back of the bowl , sort of triangulating with the axe.
I can't axe and photograph at the same time but below I'm trying to show more material being removed towards the lower front of the bowl.
Hopefully the gentle curve is now starting to look more refined.
And the progress so far on the underside.
This is the most important view you must keep checking on as you progress : the upper surface of the handle should be kept parallel withe the upper surface of the bowl. 
Before I finish with the axe I'm going to rough shape the blank to a generic spoon shape. This drawing is pretty poor but never mind there will be plenty of scope for design changes later. If I hadn't been rushing I could have thought more about the shape I wanted and worked straight to it with the axe. It surprised me when I first discovered how accurately you can shape just with the axe by choking up on the head. 
Rough shaping done, respecting grain direction of course.
Finally removing any areas of excess material before putting the axe back in it's sheath.

That's the axe work completed.
JM















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