Three Cherry Spoons

My colleague Radko gave me a large stock of cherry wood. I used it to make this series of three spoons.

 

 

Are you saying that you see only two?

Well that's because I finished the last spoon later and I forgot to take a picture of the whole series. Try to imagine the third spoon in the middle of the picture. It looks basically the same but it has an elliptical pattern in the bowl.

 

Or perhaps you can find all three spoons on this picture of the handover to the new owners. Really, there are three spoons there if you look closely :D

Mysterious Wood from Madeira

I finally finished a spoon from the wood I brought from Madeira and I mentioned it in this post.

  

 

The wood was very hard, ring-porous, without smell. I still think it could be some rare species of oak (similar to holly oak) but I wasn't able to find it online despite googling for a long time. So if someone recognizes it, I would be grateful for any hint!

Some New Spoons

This is a cherry spoon I made as a Christmas present. It has a special purpose: scooping large quantities of honey from glass jars for making mead. Therefore the spoon must be long, tough and especially comfortable to hold.

Then there are 4 small spoons from willow wood. People often ask me how long it takes to carve one spoon, so I measured the time and it adds up to 2 hours per spoon. Of course this is an absolute minimum because willow wood is quite soft, the spoons are small and I didn't even sand them.

Sumac: Glowing Wood

This video was made in my sister's university lab. It shows how sumac wood glows under a blacklight (fluorescence). Sapwood emits a faint blue glow while heartwood glows bright green.

This wood is not ideal for carving but I carved one more spoon from it. What could be a better gift than a spoon you can impress your labmates with?

Hazel Spoon with Pyrography Decoration

This hazel spoon was made in collaboration with my father who is interested in pyrography (decorating wood with burn marks). It turned out so beautiful that we plan to make more spoons like that in the future.

Acacia, Cherry, Sweet Chestnut

I have a couple of finished spoons here. First one is from acacia, very hard and beautiful wood.

Second spoon is from sweet (European) chestnut. It's been sitting around unfinished since august. The wood has large open pores, so it was difficult to sand properly. But the fish handle looks pretty good.

Last spoon is from cherry (not sanded). I couldn't choose the shape for a long time but at the last moment it sort of decided itself - much better than I could have planned.

Decorating with Brass Sheet

Last weekend I attended a course in ULUV. I learned to decorate wood with brass sheetmetal. First you have to sharpen one side of the sheet, then cut a 2mm wide strip, shape it into a wavy line and then hammer it into the wood very carefully to avoid screwing it up. Here is the ornament I've created.

I also made a small bedside table from oak wood at home. It was long ago but I forgot to write about it. It was interesting to tinker at furniture making. And besides, it was impossible to buy what I needed. The wood has already darkened compared to the pic below.