Thread: Beginner projects #2 and #3 (Also some questions)

The spoon looks great.
As for timbers, I have carved spoons, salad servers and stirrers from the staves of a broken oak wine barrel. The curve in the stave gives the spoon a good "third dimension" and the residual wine gives a great odour.

Hi Fallimar
Your spoon looks really well done. Actually, there are wooden spoons with a round hole in the middle - they are called stirring spoons.....could make a nice feature if it happens again. I carve mainly huon, it is a beautiful wood to hand carve and it holds detail well. Hand tools are perfect for carving huon.
Hope this helps.
Featherwood

Originally Posted by Fallimar

Oh, another question - are there any woods available in Australia or easily importable that are dark in colour and also easy to carve by hand? I don't mind buying from overseas, but knowing a specific supplier would be lovely! I've been wanting to make some carved cookie stamps and gingerbread moulds but all the Aussie woods I have are really pale and uninteresting. The European woods seem so much nicer looking!

Bunnings and other hardware/lifestyle chains carry Meranti or Merbau. Some of it is dark colour, light weight and quite good to carve. There is also a lot of Western Red Cedar around as you have found. The older stuff goes brown, chocolaty colour. Maybe a recycled timber yard will be a good hunting ground. There are dark timbers available here in Australia (like Solomons Ebony) but they will be a shock after playing with Jelutong. On the whole Aussie timbers are much harder so they can hold detail better but you will need to look after your tools as they will show the wear.

Looks like you are having fun and learning. Did you find any period German carvings that appealed to you enough to want to try a copy?

Fallimar, you've gone and done it to me. Winter is tuning up here, I must make time to try to carve some spoons.
I prefer kitchen prep spoons with holes in them. I use a 3/4" Forstner bit and add my own. They don't splash as much.

Thanks, all!

Wine barrel slats - an interesting idea. Pity I can't stand the smell of wine or it'd be great! Might see if I can get my hands on something from another kind of barrel - can you imagine the amazing smell that'd come from a barrel that fermented balsamic vinegar? FWOOR! Carving oak with no power tools at all though - maaaybe not :P

Yay for huon pine then, I might use it to make a nice carving in the round to practice. The ironic part is I actually did intend for this spoon to be a slotted spoon, but chickened out at the last minute. The little translucent window thing was just funny considering that!

Meranti or merbau - I'll keep an eye out, thankyou! Not sure if I'm confident to play with anything hard just yet, I'm still very much learning and my lack of anything more technologically advanced than a coping saw (not even a drill!) means I'm stuck with my one set of starter tools and a few scorp thingies I picked up for scooping. Until I really get the hang of sharpening them I think I'll stick to softer wood. Good idea for later though, work my way up.

Robson - yay for spoons! So useful and good projects for me as I'm still pretty clumsy. Must work on my symmetry and detail carving. Might also invest in a hand drill once I scrape together some cash.

As for finding some German carvings, I've been poking about online and there are some gorgeous items from museums that I'd love to do but am terrified to attempt. Not quite sure how the process works yet, I think I'll need a little coaching before I'm prepared to try something hugely detailed. Still, looking at some pf the projects on here is inspiring. I'll have another look about and choose something to attempt, then maybe get a few pointers before jumping in

Fallimar: I bought a set of three "crooked" blades from Lee Valley = the Haida-style wood carving blades.
#4 (06D10.34) #8 (06D10.38) #11 (06D10.41). Already built a better knife than their #2
Just got finished with the prototype handles and made up the final versions. The blades are glued, screwed and whip-finished.
The blades come sharpened(?) to 120 grit so I've started on that process, aiming for 12 degrees.
Finished, the first projects will be spoons.
I was able to spend a day in the University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology. Studying spoons & ladles made by Pacific Northwest Native carvers, every spoon is oriented parallel to the core of the log. You can see them by searching the online UBC/MOA catalog of some 35, 000 artifacts.

Oh, that's cool! I love any sort of historical artistry.

The art (2D & 3D) of the Native populations of the Pacific Northwest here have been a considerable influence to me for more than 50 years.
Besides the prints, there's carved gold and silver and Argillite stone. Truely massive carvings in various local woods. The Great Hall in the UBC/MOA has a 15m ceiling to display totem, story and mortuary poles (and 15m windows for light).
While I refuse to imitate their work or adopt their design elements, most of my carvings have a PacNW "flavor" to them.
To me, the carvings look "correct." My fit and finish, my left/right symmetry, is woefully lacking in sophistication.
I have a dozen alder (Alnus viridis) log pieces (60cm x 15cm) ready to be carved.

What is the historical background to the "lucet?" That's a new word and a new object to me.

The lucet is an object used for making braided cord. The earliest ones found were of viking origin and were bone, shown here. they fell out of fashion in most of Europe <a href="http://www.et-tu.com/soper/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=51">until the late 15th/early 16th century</a>, and the lyre-shaped lucet was developed around then, this time usually in wood. Some had handles and were elaborately carved, I like mine simple as they're easier to use.