Powered By Blogger

Sunday 29 April 2012

River And Spoon

I walked along the river bank this afternoon all fresh and green I found a bit of elm that had been trimmed away from the path. This is spoon material  , I  looked up at a big old birch tree full of burls if only I could get up there, no such luck. Maybe one day the storms will bring a burl branch down for me. Its good getting out into the tree,s to see how the season's change them . Anyway here's what we see around my part of the world at this time of the year along with a two tone elm spoon carved when I got home  :)








Monday 23 April 2012

story fate | The HemLoft

story fate | The HemLoft, This is well worth checking out guys Mrs Brian put me on to it. A tale of a dream followed to the finish take a look :)

Saturday 21 April 2012

Bluebells And Blossom






Hazel coppice full of fresh growth ,bluebells waking from the ground as the spring sun, warm's the earth, tree,s laden with blossom putting on a real show against a blue sky. When the sun stays out spring is well worth a wander in the the evening after work, finishing with the sun shimmering over the loch, you can't beat it . But when it rains there's always the shed, and my wild wood stools to play around with here,s the latest one :)

Saturday 14 April 2012

Yew And Another Stool





Here's a stool that I made recently with a olive ash seat and hazel legs and braces. The tenons are all through the seat then wedged in place, the ash works well with the hazel legs. And I had a look at a slab of yew, this is nice wood. Three stool tops from this slab I reckon, the purple colour in the grain was caused by a couple of nails I managed to dig them out but not before the saw clipped them . I gave part of it a little scuff with a block plane to clean it up, the colour variations are quite remarkable :)

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Spoons And Sharpening

Here are a couple of spoons that I hacked out over the Easter weekend the one on the right is what you call an eater and the other a kind of ladle. Here they are along with 2 other spoons from previous posts.



I also dabbled with some kit for sharpening my spoon carving tools a sharpening board and a block along with a stick to get right into the curves of the spoon knife I used 600 grit wet and dry paper glued down with spray adhesive  I made a leather strop using the same adhesive. I gave it a little trial and it works well, I just need some honing paste now to charge the leather strop and it will be complete:)

Saturday 7 April 2012

Surprise

Mrs Brian had a nice surprise for me this weekend no it wasn't a chocolate egg. A nice new bridge camera THANKS!!! So I trotted off down to the shed to hack out a good big spoon for some work in progress shots here it is I hope they are nice and clear:)

Olive Ash Stool

A storm in December last year, brought down an ash tree not far from where we live.This is mentioned in an old post (wind fall ash) I cut two 3' logs from this tree into live edged, chunky boards . I had been keeping an eye on this timber and decided that it was ready to be worked. So I cut a chunk into three pieces for stool tops, along with some birch that has been drying in the shed for legs. I put together my first olive ash topped stool, three legs were fox wedged, one I left as a wedged through tenon. This gives the stool a nice little quirk :)

Sunday 1 April 2012

A Spoon Has Sprung

A few hour's in the shed today ended the week. With temps of 23c march was no lion this year when its going out it was a touch of summer. With buds breaking the countryside is now taking on fresh colours of green that mask the bleach of winter .
With a new laplander saw that Mrs Brian gave me for Christmas I harvested some hazel and birch in a friends garden recently, for spoon's and the legs of stools . I started with a piece of hazel with a severe bend I chopped away with the axe until it was a uniform thickness then hacked out its basic shape. Then began lots of knife work to give the spoon a flowing shape. Then I used spoon and hook knives to remove the material from the bowl.
After many slices, shaves and cuts, a really curved left handed spoon, or a hungry right hander!! sprouted from this little chunk of hazel:)