Wooden Spoon Project
Turn a wooden spoon with an offset handle. (part 1)
| Turning a wooden spoon has enough challenges to keep a person interested for a while. The handle needs to be spightly offset from the bowl so as to allow the handle to be easily picked up from the table or cooking surface. By itself, the bowl is an exercise in carving once it is defined by "turning air", as only the outer edges are accessible from the lathe. I like to use a skew for most of the turning but a roughing gouge and spindle gouges work well. |
preparing the stock
| I begin with a hardwood block about 16" long by 3 1/2" thick and cut one side straight with a chain saw. Note the clamps holding the wood from slipping. With a chainsaw be as safe as possible. |
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| Having one side straight I marked off 1" slabs. I have several marking sticks in various widths for such an occasion. |
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| The first bandsaw cut is down the middle of the slab so as to make ballancing each cut easier and to check for grain changes. |
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| After the first five slabs from center have been cut, the grain changes enough that the handles would be weakened so I stop there. |
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| The spoons are marked out using a template prepared for the project |
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| and cut on the band saw. |
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| Remember to give clearance cuts for the bottom of the bowl and to leave a tenon (unmarked) for mounting at the tip of the bowl. |
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© 2015 copyright Darrell Feltmate, Around the Woods