Apple Drudgery

We had to cut down another tree: a small apple tree damaged by wild rabbits during one extremely long winter. After my success with plum wood, I optimistically cut a piece of dry apple trunk for a new spoon. I tried to make a spoon blank with saw and chisel, but the wood did not split at all. I decided to cut off the excess wood with knife - a very unlucky decision!

I made the spoon blank only after two weeks of slow scraping off tiny wood shavings. I could not return to saw and chisel because I took the wood to Bratislava and my only available tools were knives.

Afterwards the carving got a little easier. The wood had a nice fine-grained structure and it did not split. But the spoon stubbornly resisted my first attempt to carve the inside of the bowl. I tried to use my old "noname" carving chisels, but they hardly left a scratch. I hat do borrow better chisels and finish the work. Then I added a celtic knot on the handle.