Good Golly I like Holly!

I have never had the pleasure of carving holly until a few days ago.  After trying to fight a spoon out of Bradford Pear and using my last bit of Hickory on a failed attempt, I was in dire straits for sure.  I was on my walk a few days ago when I saw a holly that had the top partially snapped out of it.  I guess it was storm damage, there were others standing right beside it that were fine though, so hard to say.  The tree was broken almost in half with the top of it laying on the ground.  What caught my eye was the fact that the branches were still green, they had leaves on them.  Perfect for what I needed!  A few minutes later I had the top laying on the ground, a few branches cut off of it, and 15 feet of usable spoon wood!  I threw it up on my shoulder and hiked out of the woods with my new prize.  Leaned it up against a tree at the bottom of my yard, and resumed my walk.  We have a holly tree on the border between my house and my neighbors.  Here is a shot of it from my back deck.

I have been worried about holly, because when I was a kid, my parents always told me never to eat the berries from a holly tree.  I was worried that the wood was toxic or could make people sick.  Obviously you can't make spoons out of something that is going to cause health problems when they are used.  Through my research I found a good deal of information regarding the toxicity of the holly.  In summary, eating the berries and leaves could leave you with an upset stomach, but the wood is food safe and is perfectly fine for spoons.  Cool, now let's get to carving!

 My first holly spoon, and I am so happy with how it turned out.  I found the wood to be really dense, but it carved well,  The wood is on the fibrous side and you have to be careful so you don't get tear out or splitting during longer cuts.  I carved the beginnings of a coffee scoop from the other half of the log that this spoon came from, carving the deeper bowl caused no issues.  It was a joy to make this spoon.  I have a lot more wood out in the garage, I can't wait to see what else is hiding inside it.

Walking in the woods

What is it about being in the woods that makes you feel good?  Maybe it is the crunch of the leaves, or the sounds of the squirrel scolding you from the branches above your head.  Maybe its the peace and quiet.  I think for me, its all of those things and the fact that it takes me back to when I was a kid and spent many many hours in the trees above my house.  I didn't grow up with a computer and a phone that played games.  We never even had cable television until I was much older.  Being outside is what occupied my time.  Running off into the woods, walking up to the train tracks, finding railroad spikes that somehow ended up in the yard.  I broke my arm falling off of a rope swing tied into the biggest tree I could find.

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that I enjoy being out in the woods.  Even more so now because I look at the trees with the eyes of a woodworker.  That makes me laugh.  That doesn't even sound right when I read it back.  In reality I look at every tree and think "How many spoons would that make?"

I have gone walking in the woods three of the last five days.  I think I am going to head out there again tomorrow.  I can't wait for the leaves to start coming in.  For the browns to turn to greens and for everything to come alive.  I can't wait to see the Crappie spawning in the shallow end of the resevoir.  It won't be long now.

One of these days I am going to come home with some wood to carve spoons out of.  There is some holly growing down there that I have been wanting to cut down.  In the meantime, I'm going to keep walking in the woods.  I hope it is something that I can do for a long long time.

Bradford Pear

I had two or three nice titles picked out that I was going to use for this post, but I couldn't come up with anything good.  It hasn't been a banner week of woodworking for yours truly, I can tell you that right now.  I was making progress on my Pay it Forward projects, things were looking good.  I had managed to scrape out a pretty good looking spoon and a pretty good looking scoop.  I was pretty proud of myself to be honest, but as we all know, you can't be proud of yourself too soon.  You have to wait a day or so..just to make sure everything stays cool before you can actually allow your chest to swell.

Let me begin by saying that Bradford Pear is not my favorite wood.  It is twisty, knotty, carves poorly, is hard, finishes bad, and overall isn't well suited for my purposes at all.  From what I read it isn't even suited for growing in your yard because it has a tendency to split during ice or winds.  Strangely enough, that is where I came across my current supply.

I do not labor under the delusion that I am some professional spoon carver.  I am far from it, but I have made a few spoons.  Probably 30 or so now.  I am getting better at it, and by the time I reach the 100 mark, I might even be good enough to sell a few.  That being said, though, you have to work with materials that give you a good chance of producing a good product.  Bradford Pear, in my opinion, is not one of those materials.  I want it to be, but it isn't.  I am not happy with the results that I get.

I have a little bit of Hickory left that I plan to work with in the coming week.  Enough for a spoon or two, maybe.

I'm going to just throw the rest of the Bradford Pear that I have on the wood pile.  I will not remember the good times we have had together, because there weren't any really.  I will though, look forward to the spring and how pretty it looks in the yard.

Paying it Forward

Lance at Southpaw Leatherworks posted a challenge on his facebook status a week or so ago. The challenge was to re post his status and then promise to make the first 5 people who commented and agreed to in turn re-post, something handmade and send it to them. I read it and took a few hours to think about if this was something I wanted to do. Finally after thinking about it and, frankly getting up the courage, I accepted the challenge.

Getting up the courage? Of course. The thought of making someone something and then sending it out makes me really nervous. There is no bigger critic for the things that I make than myself. I have made a few pretty nice spoons and I have been happy, but the thought of sending them to someone else is downright terrifying. Okay, hold up, maybe not terrifying, but it makes me nervous. Sort of like the same feeling you get when you climb to the top of the high dive at the pool, gingerly walk out to the edge and look down. Feel me?

So anyway, I have my list of people. Five people from different walks of life. A sheath maker, a singer, a master chair maker, an old friend, and my dear Aunt Connie (who, by the way, is somewhat of a master crafts..er..person in her own right.) Trust me, family doesn't make it easier. I have to see her at Thanksgiving dinner!

So what do I make? The obvious choice is spoons or scoops I guess. I have a few other ideas kicking around in my head. The important thing is that by making things for these people, they are, in turn, making things for others, and the cycle continues. That is what this whole deal is about. It's about Paying it Forward, giving to others and making them smile and feel like there is someone out there, maybe a random person, that is willing to do something nice for them.

Two Zero One One

See how clever that is? I didn't want to use the same old same old obligatory "This is my New Year's resolution post" title so I cleverly used the spelling of the numbers of the year instead!! Whatever. Still lame. I figure that at the end of the year I can look back at this post and see if any of this stuff actually happened. Some of it will, I am sure. Hopefully more will get done than not.

1.) Spoons. I think this resolution is actually broken down into a few different areas. First, I need to figure out an overall design and then work to perfect that. I think I am close. I have been happy with some of my recent work, the bowl and handles are starting to look more symmetrical, the lines are starting to come into focus and they make me happy. But still, I want my spoons to be simple and elegant. Is that even possible? I resolve to figure that out this year.

2.) Fan Birds. I resolve to figure out the mystery of the Fan Bird. I think the biggest mystery is the wood that I use to make them. Pine would work best, but I seem to be in short supply of pine.

3.) Sharpening. I resolve to figure out how to effectively sharpen my tools and to keep them that way.

4.) Pole Lathe, Bowls, Kuksa, tools, baskets, and more. I have this list of things in my brain. This is a two-fold resolution. First. I need to limit the number of things that I try to accomplish to a manageable level. I am going to focus really hard on spoons, but I also want to branch out into the world of wooden bowls, wooden cups (Kuksas) and other odds and ends. What usually ends up happening is that I become obsessed with something, drive myself to laying in bed at night being unable to sleep thinking about it, and then something happens that makes it impossible to finish. So, I am going to try really hard to only become obsessed with things that I can handle. The second part of this resolution is to actually do something besides spoons this year.

5.) Tools. I need to make a list of tools that I would like to have and more importantly, the exact reason that I want them. For example. I want a carving Axe. A good one. I want to be able to chop out spoon/bowl/kuksa blanks using it. See? Valid tool and a worthwhile purchase. I think that every new tool that I "think" that I just have to have, needs to go through this same review. The end result, more satisfaction with the tools I have, and less worrying about the ones I don't.

I think that is a good place to start. This is just the woodworking list. I have others that are even more important. Like being a good husband and father. Like staying in touch with my brother and spending more time with him just sitting around and carving. Like losing some weight and becoming healthier. Typical stuff. Things that don't need a New Year to become important.

Happy New Year!!

I'm making you a spoon and I want you to make one too.

There is this guy named Barn and he is a spoon maker who travels around Britain making spoons in exchange for room and board or he will sell you one for about $11 US (7 British Pounds).  He doesn't do mail order, but will come to you and make you a spoon if you want one.  He has his peddler's license which gives him permission to sell his wares on street corners and such.  He's a regular guy, with a passion for the woodlands and for making spoons.

He has a blog and a facebook account that he updates on a pretty regular basis.  He seems like a really interesting man and I would love to meet him one day, but in the meantime, I have been thinking about the last sentence in his most recent post.

"Imagine if everyone had a spoon carved for them by someone that cared about them, I really like that idea."

I can't get that line out of my head.  Seriously, it has been rattling around for 24 hours or so.  I think I would like to give this a try and see what happens.

I'm going to make a few spoons and send them out to some folks that I care about.  (Yes Jim, you are first on the list).  I am going to include a brief note about why I made this spoon for them, and a request.  The request will be simple, nothing major, but I would like those people to make at least one spoon for someone else and send it to them with the same note and request attached.

"Imagine if everyone had a spoon carved for them by someone that cared about them, I really like that idea."

I really like that idea too Barn.  A lot.

A Wonderful World

It continually amazes me when I think of this world that I have found.  I didn't create it, it has been here all the time.  I just found it though, a few months ago.  I needed something to occupy my time, something to keep my hands busy.  I remember that night, sitting down in front of my PC, browsing the internet and somehow I found a video from a guy named Carl in Minnesota.  In his video he showed how to carve a spoon.  How to cut the blank, how to carve the handle and the bowl.  As he talked over the screech of his bandsaw, I sat with my mouth hanging open in wonder.  I was hooked.  I mean right that second I went from not even knowing about spoon carving to being obsessed.  It was that night that I had my first glimpse into this wonderful world.  It wasn't too long before my first spoon was carved.

Days have changed to weeks and weeks to months since that night.  There are wood shavings in the garage, random spoons laying around the house.  I have a few nicks and cuts on my hands that are healing, and still, I am hooked.  There is something magical about taking a log from a tree and making a spoon.  It is a simple thing really, these spoons.  Just pieces of wood that have been shaped and carved and sanded.  The world needs more simple things I think.  More things made by the sweat of your brow and the strength of your hands.  I know that, for me at least, each time I sit and carve, I come away feeling like I have accomplished more by making that spoon then by working a full week at my "real" job.