Spooning...

Wooden Spoons is another type of craft that fascinates me a lot. After doing some research and lots of reading about how to make spoons out of wood, I found a website with very useful information on this and some other subjects.

Quite often, I get asked 'which are the best hook knives for carving spoons' or 'do you know of any video showing spoon-carving techniques' or 'how to sharpen hook knives'. Oh and of course 'do we sell hook knives' - which we don't, but I'm working on...

Since I am learning about this craft, I chose Robin Wood’s website because of his expertise and because it's full of interesting reading about wooden spoon making, bowls and tools for carving.

Thirty years ago, Robin decided never to do a days work he did not enjoy, he wanted to use his mind, body and soul in his work and be close to nature. Whilst working for the National Trust in conservation forestry he was introduced to various traditional woodland crafts as they used the trees they felled to make styles, fences and bridges. In the evenings he worked with the wood and soon making wooden bowls and spoons became a passion bordering on obsession.

So in order to answer some of those questions mentioned above, lets start with which are some of the best hook knives for carving spoons?

Robin reckons a good hook knife needs to be sharp and hold a good edge.

The curvature of the blade is important, tight curves and short blades are easy for beginners to use but leave a bit of a ploughed field effect which most resort to sandpaper to remove. A more open curve allows a clean cut surface to be created quickly but takes more time to learn to use. His personal taste is for a gradually tightening curve on the knife and this means he has whatever curve he wants somewhere on the blade and can do everything with one knife.

Next will be the profile. The blade has to run through a curve and if it is wide front to back the back edge catches on the inside of the curve and makes the edge dig in, this results in chatter rather than a smooth cut. There are two ways around this, either you make a very thin narrow blade which works but flexes, or have a broad blade but grind off the back corner and smooth it so that you have a lovely polished rounded surface running over the inside of the spoon bowl.

Finally the handle, this is largely personal preference, some like small handles, others larger. Most makers give us short handles and this restricts the number and range of cuts that are possible. I like a handle around 15-20cm long.

Below is a list of some of the best hook knife manufacturers around the globe suggested by Mr. Woods:

• Frosts/Mora
• Svante Djarve
• Ben Orford
• Hans Karlsson
• Del Stubbs of Pinewood Forge
• Bo Helgesson (Good luck if you manage to get one of these)
• Dave Budd
• Dorset Woodland
• Nic Westerman

More reading on this go to http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/wood-craft-blog/2013/01/29/best-spoon-carving-knife-hook-knife/

Lets continue with “if I know of any videos showing spoon-carving techniques”. Below is a link to a video from Robin showing us how to carve the bowl of a spoon using a hook-knife.

Click on the picture to watch the video.

If you enjoyed watching this, here are the links to four videos carving a whole wooden spoon from scratch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx-NTPBoLmU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIujxP21qd0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1TMhj9t2PY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbuNNKN6F0I

Finally, or at least for today, how to sharpen hook knives?

Click on the picture to watch the video.

And to close this week blog here is one of my favorite videos from Robin turning Bowls using a foot powered pole lathe.

Click on the picture to watch the video.

When George Lailey died in 1958 a craft going back more than 2000 years died with him. He was the last person in England to make a living turning wooden bowls on a foot powered pole lathe. In medieval times nearly everybody in Britain ate from wooden bowls every day. They were beautiful, functional bowls that linger on in memories of Goldilocks but were killed off by the industrial revolution and cheap pottery.

Robin’s work is inspired by the late George Lailey (pictured below), who died in 1958. When George passed away a craft going back more than 2000 years died with him. He was the last person in England to make a living turning wooden bowls on a foot powered pole lathe. In medieval times nearly everybody in Britain ate from wooden bowls every day. They were beautiful, functional bowls that linger on in memories of Goldilocks but were killed off by the industrial revolution and cheap pottery.

Cheers, Gaston