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.