Chip carving and challenging chestnut

This is my first spoon decorated with a simple chipcarving pattern. I have seen many wonderful examples of chip carving on various blogs and on facebook, and wanted to have a go. I took one of the spoons I carved last week and made a little pattern of triangular chips on it. It is a bit uneven, but for a first go I am not unhappy. I find it difficult to decide when a spoon improves from decoration. I often prefer clean lines over lots of decoration, but sometimes some kolrosing or chipcarving just adds to a spoon. 

People in my environment seem to know that I am always on the lookout for new green wood to carve. Last week that led to someone kindly giving me a large stump of chestnut. I was really happy with it. I wanted to make a new choppingblock, a little stool and maybe some cuttingboards. All stuff that requires larger diameter wood then what I am usually able to get. When I had gotten the stump home and out of the car I realized something though: I have no saw that is large enough to cut through it. I am currently figuring out how to cut it in half with the saws I have available. I might need to split bits off before I can do it. Or maybe I can find someone with a chainsaw in the neighbourhood to help me out. For me it is a luxury problem though. I hope to end up with some neat cutting boards and a sturdy chopping block.

Lastly, this week I got my hands on the mora 106. This knife is highly recommended by many carvers for being the best value-for-money straight knife available. For a long time I couldn`t find any place in the Netherlands that had them in stock, so when I finally came across one I had to have it. I have not had much time to try it out properly yet, but I shaved up a scrap of wood and it made lovely curls. I think I`ll be able to get along with this blade very well indeed.

Wooden spoons at work.

For the past year I have been eating lunch at work with a wooden spoon, and the reactions that I get from people around me are interesting. Initially people do not understand why I`d take the effort to wash a spoon that I bring to work myself every day, instead of using the disposable ones from the cafetaria. Secondly they wonder why I would buy myself such a weird non-metal spoon. I usually tell them that I carve them myself, and that  it is nice to use something handmade and durable instead of flimsy and dead plastic disposables. Many people seem to understand that, but few seem to be interested in leaving plastic spoons behind themselves. Even though everyone agrees the plastic spoons are horrible. This got me thinking about a term that I think Barn Carder first came up with, and that has been repeated by some other big names on the spooncarving side of the internet. The term "Wood culture Renaissance". It sounds nice, the comeback or rebirth of wood culture into society. Even if it was only to make people more aware of the ridiculous amounts of disposable things being used, or of the joy that using a good handcrafted product brings. A big part of this supposed renaissance depends on treen being used in the public domain again, instead of standing around in jars in the rooms of carvers.

Here are the spoons I have at work currently, but I change them out frequently to try new ones I made. I keep them in a shrink pot together with some pens. the one on the left is a recent one I carved. The one on the right is the spoon I received in the second international secret spoonswap.

To make up for my little monologue in this post, I`ll add some pictures of recent spoons. I am happy with the crank I get in them. I tried a different way of chopping out the blank and now cranks are a bit easier for me to achieve.

Testrun with Lauri #1

I tested the Lauri-knife today, by making a spoon. I found it comfortable to use, and my fear that the blade would wobble out of the handle because the slot wasn`t fully filled with epoxy didn`t come true this far. I am a bit reluctant to post this spoon since I am not too happy with it. The bowl had some tear out due to a blunt spoon knife, and that resulted in me having to alter the bowl shape. I am pleased with the crank I got into this little one though.

This spoon is carved from my last scraps of the sycamore I have. It is becoming dry and hard to carve. Today I heard that somebody reserved me a large chunk of chestnut though, so that should keep me busy for a while.

Lauri #1: Oak, coins and a lunchbox.

I finished my first handle for one of the Lauri blades this week. I used one of the smallest blades and made a slim handle for it. I wanted to use silver and red spacers to achieve a nice contrast, and looked around to find what I could use. I ended up with two norwegian coins of 1 kroner (which already have a hole in the middle), and red plastic that I got from an old red lunchbox that had been lying around. Here is the result.

A shot comparing it to my opinel #8. It shows how small and slender this knife is. It is a nice whittling blade.

I am quite pleased with it, but there are a couple of things I want to do differently (read: better) on the next one. One important thing is to polish and sand off the pen-marks on the bolster before gluing the knife together. Another thing is that I want to warm up the epoxy a bit, so that it is easier to fill up the whole slot for the tang. I am not sure if I succeeded in that with this one, and therefore I kind of doubt that it`ll take a lot of abuse in the long run. But I started these 5 blades to learn, and I have learned a lot on #1, so I am a happy chap!

Knife blades

I received a package from Brisa in Finland the other day. It contained 5 knife blades. They are all carbon blades made by Lauri. I got three different blades to practise making handles with and these are perfect for the job. They are cheap (and that means the finish is not so great) but the  quality is fine. 

As you can see the blades I bought are rather small. Smaller than I anticipated, to be honest. But I believe they`ll make some nice little carving blades. This afternoon is spent with drawing up some designs and starting assembly of the first one.