Apple Wood

My parents-in-law gave me lots of nice apple wood. I made eating spoon and cooking spoon blanks and put them to freezer - this way the wood stays green until the time when I need to carve it.

First I made this small eating spoon. Apple wood can be polished nicely, so this spoon is sanded and polished.

There wasn't much wood suitable for cooking spoons because the apple tree was a little crooked. It can be seen on this spoon...

Moreover the wood sometimes contains dark spots like this. I was slightly disappointed from this spoon, but Jarko says the spot gives it a rustic look :)

Spoon from a Bent Branch

In this post I wrote about a spoon from a bent willow branch. Now I made a similar spoon and this time I remembered to take pictures.

I began with this bent branch. It was still wet inside because I kept it in the freezer :) The picture also shows a place I found in the woods for splitting logs. I don't disturb anyone with the noise there and I don't have to worry about cleaning the shavings either.

I split the log open - it is harder than with straight logs, but it usually goes well.

I took the lower half because the upper one was full of knots. I cut a basic spoon shape from it.

This is the spoon blank after removing unnecessary wood. The branch was thicker than I needed, so I removed a few layers of wood.

Then I found a few hidden knots. Some of them could be avoided, some not. I wanted to throw the wood away, but then I saw the smiley face...

So in the end I just carved a smaller spoon than I intended.

Try what you can see in the pattern - a smiley with a big nose, a Cyclops, or maybe something else?

This picture shows two spoons from bent willow branches. The upper one was treated with oil about two months ago, the lower one is not oiled yet. Willow wood changes its color a little after oiling, but it is not as dramatic as with birch wood on the picture below...