For the last 3 months, my woodworking has largely been the process of learning to carve spoons and similar kitchenware from green wood. I’ve also made a couple of bowls, a kuksa and a shrink pot. It’s all very addictive!

The learning process is very different from that of learning cabinetmaking. With the latter, getting it mostly right first time – and taking your time to do so – seems the objective.  After all, you can’t afford to ruin several board-feet of expensive hardwood!

With green wood working the timber is generally very plentiful, available and free.  Well, it is in West Wales, where every other bloke seems to be a tree-feller/fellah.  🙂 Also, a spoon takes a lot less time and timber than a bed or a chair. One can make numerous mistakes and start again, all within an hour.

Anyroadup, I’ve now made around 30 spoons and such, mostly from goat willow but also from English cherry and beech. These spoons, spatulas and so forth have been successful to a degree (they’re all getting used in the kitchen & dining room now) but lack refinement and sophistication. Making a 3D non-linear object with nothing but some pencil marks on a rude chunk o’ wood and tools with only a little bit of built-in jigging is not the same as making and sticking together lots of nice regular mini-planks and poles with highly refined planes and table saw.

I intend to remake most of the things I’ve made practice pieces of over the next few months, using “better” wood than goat willow (its a bit fluffy and fibrous) such as beech, sycamore, fruitwoods and the like.  Perhaps even holly and box. Bowls and shrink pots are also on the list; maybe even another kuksa or three.

I hate to admit it, but this kind of woodworking involves a bit of art as well as a very different set of craft skills from those of cabinetmaking. It’s very easy to make an ugly and badly-proportioned spoon.  See pics.   🙂

Lataxe