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  :)

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 :)

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 :)

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 :)

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:)

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 :)

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:)