Wooden Spoons

Hi Everyone,
I'm having some technical difficulties with the coffee scoop at the moment so I'm going to work on a different project today--wooden spoons.

I've been asked by a buddy of mine to make her some wooden spoons for her kitchen. She and her husband cook a lot and she's asked me to make some tasting spoons. I've never heard of this type of spoon (being the big peasant that I basically am, I just use what ever spoon happens to be laying around when I'm cooking) so I looked on the Internet and found that these are spoons with a very long handle and a small bowl on the end. The one's that I saw appear to be flat and as most spoons are contoured somewhat (and rather elegant looking if done well) I suspect that these spoons are simply cut from a straight piece of lumber. I checked with my friend and this is what she wants so away we go...

My friend would like 3 spoons so I've gathered up some of my usable scrap lumber and I've sawed out three blanks: mahogany, maple, and cherry wood and I'm going to put these on the lathe and turn out the handles and then cut the bowls by hand:

I drew a line down the center and sketched out a spoon on each of them and then placed the cherry blank on the lathe between centers:

And turned on the lathe. You can see a dark line towards the left. I drew that there to keep me from cutting into the bowl section:

Here is a photo after the handle has been turned down:

I've shaped the handle even more and added a little detail:

Here's a closeup of the handle:

I finished this by sanding it with 100 and 150 grit sandpaper. As these are going to be used and washed, the grain will eventually raise and the spoons will have a rough surface so there's no point in sanding it to a high finish.

I've done the same thing with the other two spoons:

The handles look a little too wide for the width of the bowl so esthetically speaking, they're not going to be winning any awards. But they are very strong and will last a very long time. And I like the mahogany one.

The bowls have to be hand carved. The top will be scooped out and the bottom will be rounded. And I'll admit--I had to have a dental biopsy today and the novacaine is wearing off so it will be nice to go upstairs  and get off my feet and carve for a while. So go sit down and I'll get a cup of coffee and go and get some ibuprofen and I'll be right back...

Ok, I'm back.

There is a company called FlexCut and they make terrific carving knives. I'm going to be using there large, roughing knife for the outside of the bowl:

I'll work on the mahogany one first. Mahogany is one of the softer hardwoods and a joy to work with in any capacity-carving, turning, or general wood working. Here is the back of the spoon:

Here is a photo after about 10 minutes of gentle carving:

ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

And here is the last photo for the time being:

I've rounded off the back and the sides and I'm going to stop for now. My eye-hand coordination is a little off today and I don't want to cut off a finger. And I need to leave enough wood for tomorrow's hollowing out.

I'm going to go and finish my coffee and tomorrow I'll finish the spoons and work on the coffee scoop some more. Also the walnut bowls and the black ash-Brazilian cherry bowls are in their final finishing stages so I'll have photos of those tomorrow too.

See you then,
VW