Amatuar Woodcraft projects

[comanighttrain]

I'm a bit of a noob to tool making..

Can someone recommend some stuff to try making to get started? I was going to head out this weekend to try find wood to make a bow but... I'm assuming a bow is not ideal for a beginner so...any ideas?

[CanadianMike]

Why not try a spoon first? It'll give you lots of learned techniques for carving and that will eventually allow you to make a bow.

[comanighttrain]

A spoon was what i was thinking of actually! What wood would be best for this? I was going to use pine

[CanadianMike]

Better to use cedar, it's softer and easier to carve. Pine can be too hard, but also there is a chance of resin in it. Cedar is easy to find too, deadwood is plenty.

[comanighttrain]

I cn't find which kind grows here...but I know I have seen these around...especially in my home town

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Poland._Warsaw._Powsin._Botanical_Garden_097.jpg/300px-Poland._Warsaw._Powsin._Botanical_Garden_097.jpg

[CanadianMike]

What you can do is look for fallen deadwood, and try marking it with your fingernail to see how soft it is. Whatever you can mark that way would be good for carving. I also recommend a leather work glove on the hand you hold the wood in to help reduce cutting yourself.

[comanighttrain]

Thanks Mike :D Ill post up any regonisable results of my exploits!

[CanadianMike]

Have fun! I enjoy doing it around a campfire, more so because I can be messy, but during the winter I won't do it indoors, so I started leatherworking and knife making instead. Lol

[Tony1948]

We in the UK use mainly birch for spoons.......atb......TONY........PS Mike have you got the template yet?

[CanadianMike]

We in the UK use mainly birch for spoons.......atb......TONY........PS Mike have you got the template yet?

Still no Tony, patiently waiting for it. You didn't happen to put it on the monthly dogsled, did you?

I chose to use cedar because it's nicely scented and easy to find/use. Birch is nice though, but for deadwood, it's sometimes hard to find stuff that is either not too hard or not too rotten.

[comanighttrain]

I ended up with a bit of birch - there was no spruce about garelochhead. Luckily happened upon a fallen birch though.

How do I get the dip in the spoon? I have cut the general shape but now need to actually make it more spoon like

[JonnyP]

I would recommend you to use green wood.
Cut yourself off a length you want your spoon to be..You need to avoid using the centre of the wood as it can split as it dries, so use a big enough piece of wood, that you can split in half. Draw a picture of the spoon you want onto one of the split faces and chop it out with an axe on a chopping block. Use saw cuts for axe stops (to stop the axe from splitting any further). Dont worry about the sides during this stage..
Once you have a spoon shape cut out, draw onto the side how you want the spoon to look, and then cut that out, going as close to your pencil line as you dare with the axe. Then finish off using a sharp knife.
You should now have a spoon shape.
Now you need to carve out the bowl with a spoon knife.
If you want to sand it, you will need to let it dry first. Let it dry slowly.
Once dry, leave it to soak overnight in food grade oil (not olive oil though)..
Then show us what you have achieved.. :0)

There are many ways of making spoons, but thats what works for me..

[comanighttrain]

Heres what i got so far... looks more like a teaspoon in size at the moment - think the branch wasn't quite thick enough.

735736

[CanadianMike]

Not bad, assuming you don't have the proper tools yet. A crook knife, sppon knife, hook knife all have a curved blade, is what is used to carve out the bowl.

Here's a pic of my Frosts Mora hook knife, works well once sharp:

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/38280_418426609206_510619206_4416558_8045827_n.jpg

And something else neat to make, an olive oil lamp. Use a lump of charcoal to burn the bowl out, keep replacing it with a fresh hot one and scrape out the charred parts.

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/38280_418426639206_510619206_4416564_653574_n.jpg