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Spoon Carving: Hands On
The Process: From Blank to Spoon
Using sloyd knife to remove material, shape handle and back of spoon
Using hook knife to carve out spoon bowl
Sanding
Burnishing
Sealing with oil
Materials Needed:
Spoon blank
Sloyd knife
Hook knife
Sandpaper
Food-safe oil
Hand strength and knife safety are crucial for the hand carving process. For safety, I recommend carving wearing a pair of cut-proof gloves; they drastically reduce the chance for most slip injuries. Maintaining sharp edges on all carving tools is also good general advice. A hands on class uses pre-cut spoon blanks of basswood, which is a soft, consistent wood that is perfect for beginners.
Carving
The first step in carving the spoon is to use a sloyd knife to begin carving off long strips of wood from the blank. The sloyd knife is an essential tool to remove material and begin creating form for any carving handicraft.
Grip the knife close to the blade, creating a stronger lever of power for your carving. Begin by focusing on forming the handle shape, placing the piece of wood (I’m right handed) over your right thigh, gripping the wood with your left hand. Carve downwards and away from you, pushing the knife into the wood. The goal is to remove long strips of wood in this process, gradually whittling down the billet chunk/blank into the general shape of a gracile handle. The sloyd knife is best used for removing a lot of material. Once the general handle is shaped, you’ll need to change your grip. Place the knife in your palm so that the blade is pointed towards your thumb and grip it. Use your other hand to grab the spoon handle, using the thumb of this hand to push the knife blade in short strokes. This is the thumb push technique, which allows for more control over short strokes of the knife, for more detailed work; photograph of the technique to the right.
For the end of the handle, as well as to help form the shape of the spoon bowl, you can use what is called the thumb bypass technique. The thumb of the knife hand is kept out of the path of the blade, but used as a lever to push the material against the blade. The technique is pictured to the right. After forming the handle, the next step is to focus on carving/rounding the back of the bowl of the spoon. You can use the thumb push as well as the thumb bypass techniques to slowly round the back of the piece into a rough bowl shape, removing material from the edges to make a smooth transition to the bowl wall. At this point in the process, you should have a rough spoon with a rounded bowl shape at the end.
The next step in carving is to hollow out the bowl of the spoon, which can be accomplished with either a hook knife or with a gouge. Hook knives have rounded blades, which cut in a scooping motion across the face of the spoon bowl. Place the spoon on your knee, slightly tipped away from you to help protect your thumb from the path of the hook knife. Press down with the blade of the hook knife onto the spoon bowl, and then shallowly pass over the material with the blade of the knife. It should be a shallow scooping cut across the wood, removing thin shavings, using the thumb bypass method with the thumb acting as a lever to help provide power. In order to form a symmetrical bowl, you’ll need to adjust your approach/angle of the knife by moving the spoon blank around on your knee.
Sanding and Sealing
After hollowing out the bowl of the spoon, the next step is the bane of the woodworker: sanding. In general, use sandpaper from a low grit (such as 150 grit) and work your way up to higher grits, rubbing the sandpaper over the wooden spoon to smooth edges and remove any burrs or roughness. This is a part of the process that can really elevate your spoon; take the time to sand thoroughly and work gradually up to a high grit sandpaper. I usually take my spoons up to 600 or 800 grit, so that the piece feels smooth to the touch in hand. An additional step is optional, but helps to improve finish: burnishing the wood. This means simply rubbing the wooden piece with a hard, smooth surface to smooth the ends of the wood grain after sanding. I use a small rounded piece of quartz, but anything smooth and rounded could work to burnish.
After sanding and burnishing, the final step to process a carved wooden spoon is to apply a food-safe oil to seal the wood. There are a variety of materials that can be used, but I use a coating of a food-grade walnut oil, applying liberally to the entire surface area of the spoon and allowing it to dry. Walnut oil is a period finish, and used primarily for cooking or food utensil applications. Other options include linseed oil, poppy oil, rapeseed oil, or beeswax. For a cooking spoon, I would apply a coating of oil every few months to ensure the quality of the wood. Mineral oil helps to protect the wood, but does need to be reapplied frequently over time, much like a wooden butcher’s block. Raw Linseed oil, another popular option, would have been commonly used in period.
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