My shop is still a mess, so here’s what I have been looking at

 

Long-time readers of this blog know that I follow closely the work that Robin Wood does over in England.  Robin’s blog was the one that inspired me to do this one…

Just last week, he (and many others)  finished the first-ever spoon fest in Derbyshire. Robin posted a bunch of photos, as well as links to other blog posts about the event. I wished I could have gone, but I deserted my family enough this year with woodworking travels.  Be sure to follow the link that takes you to the audio portion of Jogge Sundqvist’s talk that opened the event. Great stuff, thanks for making it happen, Robin et al. Sounds like a good time was had by all.

here’s the link, read through about the past five posts or more. Great, great stuff: http://greenwood-carving.blogspot.com/

Robin Wood & Jogge Sundqvist

Now, another piece that you folks that have been here a while might remember is these fabulous drawings from Maurice Pommier.

feuilardier

 

French sawing

They came with very kind words from Maurice. His work intrigued me, so I looked up his books. He had a children’s book that I added to my list, and I finally ordered it. I couldn’t read a lick of it mostly…but I loved it. I showed it around at a Lie-Nielsen gig one time, & described it as a cross between Mad Magazine & Eric Sloane. I sent images to Chris Schwarz, and he replied that he already had the book in the works. Now it’s ready to go, so trot over to Lost Art Press and see for yourself.  I assume that Chris never sleeps. http://blog.lostartpress.com/2012/08/26/new-from-lost-art-press-grandpas-workshop/

Grampa’s Workshop

 

This follows almost instantly on the heels of Matt Bickford’s book on using hollows and rounds. http://www.lostartpress.com/Mouldings_in_Practice_p/bk-mip.htm

Matt Bickford Mouldings in Practice

I had read the book in a near-finished draft, and was knocked out. Even if you haven’t used molding planes, or especially if you haven’t, this book will make you want to.  Hollows & rounds are some of the next batch of JA tools here, later this week. Matt’s book makes the use of them so basic & simple. He really has demystified the use of these tools. If you have ever seen Matt at one of the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Events, then you understand. A nice guy, a great book. Lost Art Press, the hits just keep comin’.

 

 

 

spoon knives and more

various spoons

I’m still carving spoons when I have time. I have a batch of about another dozen coming up soon for those still interested…

but a lot of folks have asked about tools and materials for learning to carve their own spoons. So here goes. First off, start with Drew Langsner’s site http://countryworkshops.org/ . That’s where I learned most all I know about carving spoons. Drew sells the excellent DVD by Jogge Sundqvist “Carving Swedish Woodenware”  http://countryworkshops.org/books.html as well as many tools for this work -

hook knives

I got these two hook knives from Drew – the one in the foreground is by Hans Karlsson, that in the background is by Svante Djarv. I do 90% of my hollowing with these, some large spoons I start hollowing with a curved bent gouge and mallet.

I have many straight knives, this one is my everyday knife, with a handle I made long ago, probably wouldn’t make it so bulky these days…but by now I am used to it. It’s a Frost blade, fitted to a maple handle. The handle is about 3 1/2″ long, by 5/8″ wide. But that’s after 20 years of use.

carving knife

more straight knives

Three more straight knives. The large one at left is by Svante Djarv. I just got it this spring from Drew. It’s big. 4″ long, by 3/4″ wide. Great knife. They sell smaller ones also…

The small middle knife here is by Del Stubbs http://www.pinewoodforge.com/ It’s a fabulous knife. I use if for finishing cuts, once the green wood has been roughed into shape. As it dries the wood cuts more cleanly. Del’s site has lots of spoon-carving information & inspiration.  The top knife here is another old Frost blade, now worn down to a nice small size for detail carving. It’s my first carving knife, so it stays in the game.

 

detail knives

For the chip carving that I put on the spoon handles, I use the one in the right above made by Ron Hock http://www.hocktools.com/Knives.htm   it’s called the “Chip Carver #CKC100 1″ on his site. The other I have just been getting used to is another tool from Svante Djarv that I got from Country Workshops.

While you’re at Country Workshops’ site, sign up for their free newsletter. This recent issue has an article about Drew & Louise’s trip to Sweden, where among other things, they visited  Wille Sundqvist – who started all this spoon carving at Drew’s back in 1978. http://www.countryworkshops.org/newsletter35/

This weekend, if you’re home reading this, that means that you & I are both missing a spoon extravaganza in England – Robin Wood is part of this spoon scene that descended from Wille -here is his site, showing his turned bowls, but spoon carving is a big part of his work too. http://robin-wood-gallery.blogspot.com/p/carving-courses.html

This weekend he & some friends are having a gathering of spoon carvers = read about it here. http://spoonfest.co.uk/ I wish I could have made it…

I think that about covers it. I’m sure there’s lots more; but this ought to get you started.

 

New Spoons for sale

hollowing a big spoon

Thanks again to all those who responded to my spoons for sale, both the buyers and the viewers. I appreciate it. Tonight I’ve updated the SPOONS FOR SALE page with new examples. So if you are inclined, have a look. Or if you know of someone whose life will be improved with some handmade stuff in their kitchen, send them a link. I appreciate your interest in my work.

Here’s the direct link, http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/spoons-for-sale/ or you can get there from the menu at the top of the blog. Thanks for viewing.
Peter

 

Spoons for sale

 

basket of spoons

Well, I’ve gone & done it. Posted about a dozen spoons for sale. I stink at selling things. Always have. But after getting enough requests for spoons, I decided to give it a shot. I have made a bunch  of these spoons, and they are certainly more affordable than joined chests…so if you need some gifts, or a chance to replace some awful machine-made kitchen spoons – here’s your chance. Any questions, send me an email.

Thanks for looking. The spoons page is on the header of the blog’s front page, and here is a direct link:

http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/spoons-for-sale/

I’ll get back to woodworking techniques and the usual stuff on the blog soon. While I hope to keep selling things here, I do not intend to turn it into a retail gig only…expect the usual furniture studies, shop work, birds & kids’ drawings…and whatever else comes up…

thanks

PF

 

carving & carving

As I said earlier, I have been doing some carving lately. I have several classes this year on carving; but you might remember from an earlier post, I used up some of my carving samples/patterns. http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/it-was-the-rust-that-got-me/

When I teach, I like to have many examples for students to learn from…

so I started carving some new examples. Here’s one that is featured on almost all of my work, a pattern I call the “S-scroll”. I use it over & over; to the point where the entire 2nd DVD I did with Lie-Nielsen covers only this design, in about 5 versions.  http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?grp=1320

This is the basic outline, struck with the curved gouges themselves.

here is the “freehand” part; using the V-tool to connect the circles defined with the small gouge.

V-tool freehand curve

I think the total number of gouges for this pattern was 6; a V-tool, 3 different curved gouges, one very shallow gouge for removing the background and a very tiny one for two little stop cuts in the details at the end.

Now the pattern has been struck with the gouges.

S-scroll defined

now some background removed

background

now some incised details,  chopping out small gouge cuts, brings us to the finished design & its outline.

the finished pattern & its layout

So just when I was really getting going; the museum’s tree person (we call him Hurricane Craig) came by & trimmed a very large sycamore (here in the US it’s a sycamore; in the UK the same tree is a London Plane Tree; and sycamore means something else over there.) the Latin name for this tree is Platanus occidentalis. Anyway, this pile represents about 1/10th of the haul. It’s a lousy splitting wood, but once you get it open, it’s great for wooden ware.

one tenth spoon haul

 

So, I have lots of furniture & shop work to do, but spoons, here I come.

spoon carving

 

avoidance

I have been busy trying to finish a few projects, and a little book I’m working on…so not much time for photos, etc. I have taken some time here & there to make some small boxes that now hold miscellaneous junk that collects around the shop. The one above is made of some practice pieces I did a few years back when I was trying to learn chip carving. The box is butternut, riven & planed. the lid & bottom are white pine.

The designs are totally random in this case; I was really just trying out knives & cuts.  I had no intention of making anything from these. But after them kicking around the shop for 2 years, I decided to make a box from them, no sense just having them loose…

 

The hurricane that swept through New England a month or more ago left some nice spoon wood behind. I haven’t got too far on that stuff, but I have a few of them underway.

This batch of finished & unfinished spoons  has cherry, lilac, sycamore (planetree), rhododendron and maybe birch too.  The cherry, lilac & sycamore are from the storm; the others have been around a while.

so I file this stuff under “things I did when I should have been doing something else…”

 

 

 

spoon work

 

rhododendron spoons

 

One thing I have been picking away at recently is another bunch of spoons. I cut a rhododendron tree that uprooted in early March… I made a few spoons from it, and really liked working it.  Sometimes the challenge is “seeing” the spoon in the crook. This one in particular is perplexing; I have had it around for over a month & a half. Every so often I would look it over, and try to plan my cuts into the stock.

how many spoons

Another view;

sometimes come at it from another angle

 

Finally took the plunge the other day.

first one from that section

At the same time I got a bunch of cherry limbs, so I have lots of spoon stock for the warmer days coming. I hew them either at home in the back yard, or in the shop. then the carving is portable, and I do that while watching the kids; in the yard, at the playground, etc.

cherry limb

 Then I cross-cut it, before splitting.

spoon blank in cherry

Splitting the cherry is sometimes tricky. Once I cross-cut the section I want, I usually hew away the bark along the edges where I want it to split. This photo came out like X-ray vision, but it’s a benefit here, because you can see where the hatchet is going, and the crook-ed shape of the spoon blank.

X-ray hewing

I think this is the spoon that came from that blank

small cherry spoon

Here’s the other view

showing the crook shape

Here’s an earlier cherry blank, and the spoon-in-progress that I have worked from it..

cherry ladle blank

  

Now the spoon laid back where it came from

 

the spoon in the shape

But today, it’s time to chase birds.

 

yellow warbler

 one last one, an early morning -

 

wood duck flight

 

 

some bowl & spoon work

I haven’t been in the shop much lately, just finished cleaning all that furniture that I mentioned a while ago…

 But I did manage to wrangle some time to work on some of my woodenware projects. I am slower than molasses when it comes to this stuff. So hardly any words, but a bunch of photos.

securing the hewn bowl w holdfast

trimming the "handles" on top

using large shallow gouge w bevel up

paring underside of end grain

detail of underside cuts

Then I got out some rhododendron that got uprooted a month ago. Split some for a large stirring spoon. Here’s some of the knife work.

slicing the handle

shaping the back of the spoon's bowl

fine-tuning

hook knife for hollowing

I’ve harped enough about spoons on this blog, recently I have seen lots of spoons on Peter Galbert’s blog. take a look at his stuff http://www.chairnotes.blogspot.com/

 

detail knives

Another extracurricular post this morning. I have been meaning to write for ages about the knives I bought from Del Stubbs http://www.pinewoodforge.com/

Anyone interested in working spoons will hopefully know about Del’s Pinewood Forge. The website is a treasure trove of ideas, pictures and links. He makes unbelievable knives.

Del Stubbs' knives

I have three knives from Del; two are pictured here. One is this little thin number that I’ve been using for chip carving. Del calls it a detail knife. It’s really an impressive little piece of work.  

Stubbs' detail knife

Here you can see some of the chip carving on this little bowl I’ve been picking away at for ages…

chip carving

 

The other is a “sloyd” knife; an all-around carving knife that I use for shaping spoons. The perfectly honed and polished blade is like no other.

small sloyd knife

detail

the knives come with nice sheaths, either bark or wood, depending I guess on the knife. Service is quick, price is cheap. what more can you ask?   I haven’t done much spoon work lately; but I did some of the chip carving on the bowl last week. I did see some cherry limbs that came down in a recent storm…might go see if they’re any good…

bowl & knives

Del’s knives are legendary, and for a reason. If you’re in the market, go to the website & see what’s what.

 

the spoon problem:a revolution is required

 

awful spoon

side view of awful spoon

Well, if you ask me, one of the things wrong with the world today is spoons. Look at this wretched specimen that my wife got in a Xmas swap. I was loathe to bring it home, except I knew I could blather about how bad it is, and how it demeans all life around it.  I showed it to my friend Bryan MacIntyre, and said I couldn’t imagine how it could be worse. “It could be pine” he said. True. But, this spoon is just horrible; even at a dollar it’s not worth it, because then it’s making your life uglier every day you have to look at it.

an attempt at function

Notice the nice bevel they sanded into the underside of the bowl, makes me want to scream. I’m going to give it to the kids to fling sticks into the river with…maybe it will float away one day. At least it’s biodegradable.

I just finished reading Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell. So I was primed to find connections between this spoon and the decline of civilization. I think the book is preaching to the choir, but I enjoyed it a lot. There’s a whole chapter about IKEA.

Dan Dustin spoon

Dan Dustin spoon, side view

Here’s a nice spoon worth having; by Dan Dustin of New Hampshire. Dustin has made spoons for about 30 years or so. He’s a real master of the craft. I bought it for $40 about 6 years ago, and another one the year before that…my brother-in-law thought I had lost my mind, paying that for a wooden spoon. But he had never seen hand-made spoons before, I guess. This spoon is small, but for stirring, serving, etc. I think the wood is mountain laurel.

I learned spoon carving from Jogge Sundqvist at Drew Langsner’s Country Workshops, back in 1988. I also got to take a week-long class with Jogge’s father Wille in the early 1990s; Wille taught CW’s first course in 1978.  Now Jogge is returning this year once again. http://countryworkshops.org/sloyd.html

 I signed up as quickly as I could, and apparently so did others, it’s been full for a while. This year I want to try to learn more about making large cooking spoons. I have done eating spoons a lot now & then, and I feel pretty comfortable with them; but large ones are challenging. This photo shows one of my everyday eating spoons, in apple at the bottom. It’s about 20 years old. Also some spoons underway in cherry, aiming for larger ones for the kitchen.

PF spoons, 1 old & 2 new

Drew teaches classes in this spoon carving frequently. http://countryworkshops.org/Carving.html

I just checked tonight and his winter classes are full, but keep it in mind. He has written about spoon carving many times; he has some photos of Wille posted on Country Workshops newsletter; showing the various “grasps” that Wille uses to shape the spoons. These are tricky; in the photos you can’t see the slicing action that Wille is expert at… http://www.countryworkshops.org/newsletter11/wille.html

Here’s a link to part 3 of an article Drew did last year. It should connect you to parts 1 & 2 also. Down the bottom of the page.

http://www.countryworkshops.org/newsletter10/

 And here’s a spoon by the master, Wille, and the  other master, Jogge. I photographed them at Country Workshops last summer.

Wille's spoon

Jogge's spoon

Jogge is something else in his own right. He did a video on carving spoons and bowls for Taunton press in 1988, if you can find it, watch it.  Hatchet, adze, and knife work that is inspiring. He has a website, showcasing many aspects of his handicrafts… it’s another world! http://www.surolle.se/

There’s also a growing spoon movement in the UK, see the Bodgers’ forum http://www.bodgers.org.uk/bb/phpBB2/ and Robin & Nicola Wood’s work http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/spoon-carving.htm and back in the States Del Stubbs is also spoon-mad. He makes great tools for the craft, and his website has umpteen million pictures. http://www.pinewoodforge.com/

But enough about what spoons should be…I have revolution on my mind. Anyone who has listened to me too much is already sick of me harping about Bill Coperthwaite’s book  A Handmade Life (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2003, paperback 2007). I’m wild about this book. Bill has a great philosophy about the importance of what we surround ourselves with…and his surroundings are pretty nice. He introduced Wille Sundqvist and the Langsners many years ago, and that started Country Workshops, and that’s where I got my start at crafts…

So, here’s the call. Start (or re-start) the handmade revolution now. Go throw out just one wretched wooden spoon, (burn it, throw it in the ocean, anything but give it away. That just creates a problem for someone else.) Then take a stab at making some nice handmade ones. We can start there…then we can deal with the baskets. They make the spoon problem look manageable…the cheap ones everywhere are even worse than the spoon that started this…

So, here’s my spoon-carving kit, in a white oak basket I made in 1998…

basket of spoon stuff