Spoon carving tutorial pt6

Ok last instalment of the marathon tutorial, and very pic heavy. I took lots of pictures today and when I  looked back at them in chronological order it seemed I had skipped back and forth steps. This is because, for me at least, adjustments are made during the finishing stage which necessitate design refinements to achieve a balanced final shape.

   Firstly I'll tackle the tricky transition area just behind the bowl. I'll show 2 alternative options for tidying up the fluffy torn grain, one on either side. Firstly with a straight carving knife work from either side into the hollow taking finer cuts.

Then 'feather in' gently with super fine cuts until the last rags are removed. This is best done choking up on the very tip of the knife and at a slicing angle if possible.

On the other side I'm scooping into the hollow with the spoon knife

Then carefully cutting upwards cross grain to remove the rags with a very light sweep.

 Well we are working with a natural product here and unsurprisingly the handle has moved and twisted whilst drying. Luckily I have left enough material for this not to be a problem so I'll re straighten things.

 My cuts are getting much finer now I am reaching the final shape. I didn't take any photos to illustrate it but I've tapered the handle, thinning towards the bowl. I've also Faceted the top of the handle with cambers and a central flat as I hope you can see in the pictures. Once again, I'm following Fritiof design traits:- If you get chance to acquire one of his spoons take it because he is he design guru I aspire  to.

 Here I'm taking the finest of edge bevel cuts to make the handle pleasant to hold with no sharp edges

 Hopefully you can see the result here. Whilst taking these cuts pay close attention to the grain and stop if the knife starts plunging into the fibres... you may have to change direction.

 Taking bevel cuts around the neck to make it more elegant.

 Again taking edge bevel cuts from every corner , even round the bowl.

 And along the leading edge.

 On the back of the bowl I can now finally thin out that material I left for rim adjustments.

 Also bevel the inside edges of the bowl.

 Ok so the spoon is about finished. I thought I'd just show how I do the trade mark Fritiof Runhall furrows in the bowl. Fritiof uses a normal spoon knife for this with a reground bevel, but I find it easier with a handed scorp. I know mine has a ding that needs sorting but for demo purposes I'll go ahead anyway.

 Come down towards the deepest point from both directions. This is the 8mm Flex cut scorp (much easier with a left AND right scorp)

Then another tidy up cut round the rim with the straight knife.

Incidentally I like to leave a fair bit of thickness on the leading edge as this is of course where all the wear will occur with use.

 You can probably see its not easy to clean up the transition part of the furrows but I've done the best I can with brittle Willow.

Hope this has been of some use, enjoy your carving, John M

Spoon carving tutorial Pt5

The next step is to do the initial hollowing of the bowl using the spoon knife. It's worth marking the area to be hollowed (this, along with an occasional centre line, is the only marking I would normally do).

This is the original Spoon knife I bought from Robin Wood when I attended his highly recommended course back in 2007. I've never found it lacking and along with the GB Carving axe I've found no reason to bother changing. I'm a believer in getting to know your tools and refining your skill rather than constantly looking for the next miracle tool. The knife is made by Swedish smith Bo Helgesson. (though his tool making stage name is Helgess).

The initial deep cuts to remove the bulk of the material are done with sweeping cross grain scoops. The secret to getting nice clean cuts and avoid 'stepping' is to make sure the bevel stays in contact with the wood. That means tilting the bevel in and out of the cut in a scooping motion. Ignore my hand positions in the pictures because I had to take photos with my non dom hand. I'll post on grips and cuts in subsequent posts so if there are any you would like me to try and demonstrate let me know.

As you get close to the final shape, you may have to come down the grain towards the deepest part of the bowl.

Here again you can see I have left plenty of material around the rim until I am happy with the bowl shape. 

Now that bowl is hollowed I can start thinning to the final thickness. I've also shortened the handle. (no point in working unwanted wood)

So here's where I've got to so far. I'll put it on a window sill for a few days near a radiator to dry out before doing the finishing cuts.

JM

Spoon carving tutorial Pt4

The next stage is to start refining the shape using straight knives. I believe this is a Frosts 137 knife; I have a few Frosts knives, mostly 106s so I'm not for ever honing (yes lazy I know). My advice is make sure you get the high carbon laminated ones and forget the stainless, they are still fantastic value for money. I like the longer bladed ones so I can get nice long slicing cuts and span across the whole of the bowl when dressing it to a uniform surface. Some people prefer shorter blades for fear of picking up a nick I believe.

So here you can see I've sketched the final shape I wish to achieve with a pencil. I will work right to these lines now with the knife, again respecting the grain orientation of course. So as you look at the picture I will use draw cuts either side of the bowl working from front rim towards handle, then along the front leading edge from right to left. To form the concave shape in the transition area (between handle and bowl)  I will have to work inwards in both directions to avoid lifting grain. 

Don't worry about this untidy torn grain in the transition area, this is best left until the spoon has dried.

Just followed the sketched lines to shape the bowl profile.

The underside- looks like my axe needs honing!!

Now I have an idea of the final shape, I can waste more material from the underside of the bowl. Be very careful here with grain transitions: generally you work away from the highest point of the keel:-back towards the handle and forwards toward the leading edge. Here I'm doing the former..

Right side done, left to do..

Then slice forwards from the keel to the front edge.

Leaving this sort of shape at this stage. Note I have still left about 1/8th of an inch of thickness in case I need to remove material from the rim.

Nice long slicing draw cuts making the handle parallel from the centre line.

And again dressing the upper surface of the handle to keep it parallel withe the bowl rim.

Once the upper handle surface is flat, I have a reference to safely slim down the underside. I prefer to triangulate this too. 

 Finally before I hollow the bowl I take a planing cut off the upper surface of the bowl to ensure I have clean wood free of any axe nicks that would cause problems if not dealt with now.

JM

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