More spoon-making

Hello again dear reader (the singular here is not, I suspect, just a figure of speech). Last time, I posted about a spoon I made out of some wood I salvaged from a chestnut tree that had to be cut down due to old age. I figured that it was only fair to extend its life a little bit longer by making a few useful things out of it. It turns out that spoon making is also extremely fun. Unlike furniture projects, hewing spoons out of green wood provides almost instant gratification. It takes me about one (very pleasant) afternoon to hew it to 90% of its final form, leave it for a day or two to dry a bit (depending on size) and then finish it with blades (chisels, planes, or spokeshaves) or abrasives (sandpaper). By far the most lengthy process is the wait between applications of whatever finish I put on it (an oil of some sort). That’s where my patience is tested to the maximum. Have I mentioned I have no patience?

This entire process can be even faster, if the scale of the project is on the small side. So, seeing as I finally had a free afternoon yesterday, I found a small offcut of chestnut wood that had already dried out quite nicely and went about making a spoon for our six-month old daughter, Sophia. Every time I feed her with those plastic and rubber spoons, I cringe a little bit, so it’s been on my mind a while now that she should be eating with something a bit more elegant and meaningful. She can eat her 1-star ice-cream in style now (more about that another time).

The form I settled on is pretty simple. Rounded bowl for her comfort, slightly weighted handle for ours. I am very pleased with the result and think that she will be too, when she’s allowed to use it in a week or so, when the oil-finish has dried. Now, I suppose, to make a few more so we can get rid of all the plastic stuff. Maybe a bowl to match, too.

Thank you for stopping by today. For more photos of this project, click here.

-T