A friend makes wooden spoons and has some very fine examples that impressed me so much I feel the urge to make some of my own. These would probably be from green wood – sycamore, lime or any other close-grained wood that grows hereabouts.
The spoons of my friend are for the dinner table – soup, pud and teaspoon size; and quite delicate.
From previous green woodworking endeavours, I have some knowledge of how to form various things from green wood – but not spoons. (I’ve made larger itesm – hurdles, ladder back chairs, bowls and stools).
Spoon making seems to require some finer work in the latter stages. A curved knife and a bent gouge seem to be the main finishing tools. However, being a tool-junky, I spotted this:
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/planes/67716-veritas-detail-palm-planes.
Although I have a small wooden plane with a double convex sole, its too long to get into spoon bowls of the smaller size. The Veritas palm plane looks like it would get into a spoon bowl for the final finishing, because of the short sole and the angled handle.
It can also be fitted with a toothed blade, which might make it the only tool necessary to both form and finish a smallish spoon bowl.
The side to side radius is 1/2″ and the end to end radius is 4″.
Does anyone use one of these double concave tools; if so, is it possible to say whether it would suit spoon making? I’ll buy either this, if it’ll work to make spoon bowls, or a curved knife and a bent gouge.
Thanks in anticipation of any advice you can give.
Replies
You're overthrowing it. I don't those planes would be of any use. Bent gouges and a hook knife are more than enough. Bent gouges are usually used for bowls, not spoons. You can rough out the bowl of a spoon with a hook knife in less time than it took me to write this.
You can get a very smooth spoon bowl with just a hook knife. You could scrape or sand if you want it smoother -- but those methods don't work as well on green wood.
"Overthrowing it" - a new term to me. Is it related to "over-thinking it"? I confess to being much more wary of under-thinking.
The traditional tools for carving spoons and bowls do seem the obvious choice. I get to buy shiny new tools in either case - traditional, or an attempt to use that wee Veritas plane on a stalk.
But if you're suggesting I should stick with the tradition - well, I know you're right really. But you know us amateurs - we like to play in our sheds as mere work always seems so restrictive. :-)
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I do have curved scrapers - several radii on one scraper, with a convex and a concave version. As you say, green wood doesn't scrape well - but I expect (as with some other small greenwood items) to slowly dry the semi-finished item in a plastic bag (turned inside out each day, until the inside stops misting with water from the item).
Once dry, I'll scrape if it seems to offer an improvement. Sometimes the chisel and knife marks are attractive, though.
Autocorrect changed "over-thinking," and I didn't notice. Oops.
Before I did my first few spoons I expected the bowl to be the most troublesome. It really isn't. Very little wood gets removed, and it happens pretty fast. Getting all the outside parts just right takes a lot more time.
I own two of the palm planes you mentioned as a father's day gift. I really don't need any tools so I wanted to try them out. Nothing wrong with them but I doubt I will use them more than a few times in my life. Maybe if I were a luithier I'd find a use for them. When I think of spoons (which is on my short list to start doing) I'd want spoke shave and card scrapers (likely small ones for violins) for some of the fine work. But more of a guess on my part.
As joeleonetti suggests, palm planes are for carving the tops of stringed instruments like violins and guitars. High quality instruments with f-holes (the ones that look more like an S) start with a solid top and then the luthier carves a curve into it with the palm plane to create a more resonant soundboard.
I've made a hundred or two...mostly dry and usually "interesting" pieces of wood. I always carve the bowl first while the piece is still a somewhat square-ish thing that I can clamp securely in a vise. I do most of the bowl with a straight gouge, then smooth a bit with a hook knife, and scraper. I bandsaw the rough shape following the grain, the knots, and bumps. Knives, spokeshaves, rasps, stationary sander, and hand sanding finish it off. A dunk in water and another light sanding and it's ready for finish. Oh yeah, the question...no, I don't think the plane would do you any good for spoons, but it sure is a cutie.
Thanks all for the comments. Reluctantly, then, I must forego the pleasures of fondling (I mean using) that small Veritas plane in favour of the tried & tested traditional tools. :-)
Yesterday evening the chap who is my spoon-making friend brought 'round a bag o' his spoons and the tools he used to make them. His spoons are slim, delicate-looking (but not delicate) and attractive. He's managed to make some with bowls that're only a couple of millimetres thick, so they're very like standard metal eatin' spoons.
He too recommends the curved knife, whittling knife and maybe a spoon gouge for the deeper items. He carves out the spoon blanks with nought but a carving axe, from the green wood blank, which axe he also uses to rive the small logs into the initial thick slices. I'll be using a small froe to rive me logs; and a chisel and/or fretsaw to cut out the initial spoon blank shape.