Pancake Accessories

Cooking spoons bought in a shop or fair often have their drawbacks. First of all, they are sawn regardless of the grain direction, so that they can bend or cup. They are often hairy because the manufacturers did not bother to sand them. But there are other possible accidents: one of my friends bought a pancake spatula which lost its curve and was almost straight after a few uses. It was probably made from steam bent wood...
The same friend asked me for a new pancake spatula together with a small roller for spreading the batter on the pan.

The spatula is from radially cut birch wood, so the flat part should not cup nor bend. The roller is from an applewood cutoff. Since I don't have a lathe, I carved the cylindrical part by hand and then I turned it around inside a small roll of sandpaper until it was smooth and regular.

Christmas Spoon from Beech

I salvaged a beech log from a pile of firewood in the summer and I used it to carve this spoon.

I started to imitate a spoon from this gallery, but I slightly changed everything - the handle is a little wider, the bowl is more narrow, the wood pattern is totally different - but some similarity still remained.

The spoon is very nicely curved from the side.

After soaking the spoon in oil, a dark pattern appeared on the reverse side - it seems that the oil was absorbed faster in the spiral lines cut on the front side and it soaked through the fibers down to the reverse side. I assume that this pattern won't last very long, though...

Growth Rings

Last time I wrote about radial cut and then I decided to write how the cut would influence the wood pattern on a carved spoon. Let's begin with an ordinary log:

There are different ways to carve a spoon from the highlighted part.

1) Radial cut: the spoon will have a pattern of parallel lines. Examples: 1, 2.

2) Tangential cut (pith above the spoon): this is quite logical choice, especially if you have smaller diameter wood. The outer rim is naturally curved to form a bowl and the inner angled part would form a handle (at least a narrow one). The resulting pattern may vary, depending on the diameter of the log: a spoon from a thicker log is on the left, a spoon from a thinner log on the right side. Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4.

However, if the log had a large diameter (e.g. a trunk of a big tree), the spoon may have an oval pattern. The ovals are crosswise to the spoon. Example: 1.

3) Tangential cut (pith below the spoon): if you have a larger diameter log, it is interesting to cut a spoon upside down. The spoon would have lengthwise oval rings in the bowl. Examples: 1, 2.

Beauty in Simplicity

After a long time I carved a spoon from radially cut peach wood. Radial cut is like when you split a log and you see the growth rings as parallel lines on the split surface. Well, they are not as parallel on this spoon because the wood formed a slight spiral.

 

I used very simple shape, similar to ordinary metal spoons. It is perfectly symetrical, even if it doesn't seem so because of the wavy wood pattern.

Radial cut has its advantages: the spoon is stronger because the fibers are parallel with the handle, and it is more easy to crank the handle because the wood does not peel off so much during cutting (but this is rather hard to explain, you'd have to try it :))

I had a fancy for Viennese nougat all the time because some shavings look just like nougat...

Swedish-Style Birch Spoon

Many experienced carvers don't like sandpaper, some of them almost fanatically. They say that people don't try to carve better when they know that the imperfect tool cuts would be sanded anyway. Moreover, when you sand a spoon and wash it, the wood fibers swell and create a "hairy" texture, which makes the spoon unpleasant to touch. Sanding the spoon so that the grain would not rise is quite difficult and slow. And many people just like the tool cut finish.
Maybe there is something to it - but unsanded spoons seem unfinished to me and I'm not particularly fond of tool cut finish. The harder wood you use, the less fiber raises after sanding and washing - so for example my applewood spoon is smooth like glass, while a spoon from limewood just remained hairy even after the finest sandpaper.
But this time I decided to make an exception and carve a spoon just like I saw on other carvers' blogs - from softer, green wood, without sanding - just to see how it turns out. The inspiration comes from
this blog.

Birch wood surprised me in several aspects: it gains a reddish hue when exposed to the air, and after drying it smells a bit like fried oil. It does not look porous, but when I dipped the finished spoon into walnut oil, it released lots of tiny bubbles and the wood absorbed so much oil that the thinnest parts became a bit translucent...

The spoon looks quite fine without sanding...

... but I'm not content with the chip carving decoration. I have to work on it a little more...

Peach Cooking Spoon

There's a lot of information about wood on the internet, however, peach wood is almost unknown. The only information I found is that it can be used for smoking meat. Other fruitwoods like apple, plum and cherry are often used for carving, though.
When I noticed an interesting brown color on a broken peach tree, I decided to try the wood for carving nevertheless.

The wood is medium hard and it has a very interesting smell, a bit like cherries and a bit like lapacho tea.

I used my new axe to level the twisted wood and to produce this spoon blank (yes, I need more practice, but it's much better and faster than it used to be).

The finished spoon has darker and lighter strips and also a nice texture. I plan to make an eating spoon as well and test if the wood is as good as plum or cherry for carving.

A New Axe!

I have always admired how precisely other spoon carvers can make their spoon blanks using only an axe. After a few not very successful attempts I realised that the problem is not in myself, but in my axe - so I ordered a new one :)

This axe can be used for felling trees and splitting logs, but it is particularly useful for carving. It can be held just behind the head for more precise cuts and it is so sharp that it can be used as a knife. If you have never cut your finger by moving it across an axe blade... well, it's possible.

 I learned that a good axe can save lots of time and work when carving spoons... OK, enough advertisement for now, you'll see the results in the next posts...