Spoons (again)

Mr T blogged about spoons from time to time and while my urge to carve wooden spoons ebbed somewhat with the progress of my fingers aging and seizing up, the main reason for the slow down has been that I generally lack fresh greenwood to carve them from.

Some serious garden remodeling in the past had provided me with a more than adequate supply or plum and holly, which was supplemented from time to time with lilac prunings, and occasionally by some sycamore scavenged from a road clearance through local woodland.  However the scope for cutting trees out of the back yard has diminished.

Only one spoon was made while we lived in Greece - from the olive wood mentioned by Mr T.  (See link above.)  It was actually one of my better models but was stained shortly afterwards in  a red wine incident.  I don't care about the red wine, but as Mr T observed, you can't exactly make a gift of that one now.

Last weekend I started a little light pruning on a flowering apple tree that has expanded its domain to hang over the clothes line.  The far reaches of its branches seem to have become a favorite 'hanging out' place for a range of avian wildlife. 

Mr B has been complaining about random designs on the laundry.

One branch was of sufficient diameter to contemplate a teaspoon - or three.  I can still hack one out in about 10-15 minutes. 

Many spoon carvers prefer to leave the texture of the knife cuts to show off their skill.  My skills are more hacking than carving so I spend a bit more time sanding my spoons down to a silky finish.  For me it makes them pleasing to hold.  Then they get several coats of rice bran oil. Rice bran oil dries and remains shiny, rather than going sticky and dull like say olive oil does.

Apple wood gives a very pleasant finish  (as in this scoop I carved a few years ago), 

but it tends to be very hard (even green).  The small branch applewood used yesterday has no true heartwood in it, so is much easier to carve but is white and very plain.

(The ladle propping it up is plum wood.)