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Thread: Wooden Spoons, Easy Benchtop Shave Horse

  1. #1
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    Wooden Spoons, Easy Benchtop Shave Horse

    This is probably more for the carving forum, but we haven't had many pretty picture threads lately, so....

    Based on various articles I've seen on the web, I decided to make some "Swedish style" wooden serving spoons for Christmas gifts. For those of you who haven't wandered into this arena, these typically are made from naturally curved limbs of hardwood that has been split along the grain to minimize short grain in the final spoon and give it strength (good descriptions on Peter Follasbee's blog, or you can takle a class). The initial shaping is done with a hatchet while the wood it wet, then worked with knives after they dry a bit. Final decoration is normally some variation of chip carving and shaping the finial and handle.

    I used a gnarly red maple branch from our back yard- this one was brushing against the roof of my shed threatening to rub the shingles off an rust my tools, so it had to go. The numerous curves of the branch yielded enough blanks for 10 spoons ranging from 10 to 18 inches long. I don't own a $200 Gransfors carving hatchet, but a sharp old $10 camp hatchet worked fine to get to rough shape. The blanks were left about 1/2 in oversize and left to dry for a week in a paper bag.

    The wood was fairly moist at this stage, but had gotten noticeably harder to work. The pro's do all the work with Sloyd knives (straight and hooked blades), but this maple would only let me take small, thin shavings with my freshly sharpened knife due to being so hard. So, in the interest of having something to present to the family, I decided to use a double-bevel carving drawknife to speed up the shaping but I needed a shave horse to use it.

    I tied a 3/4 poly rope to the bottom stretcher of my new-ish workbench and looped it over a 40-inch piece of DF 4x4 that was secured to the far end of the bench with a heavy bar clamp. The other end of the rope was made into a loop that hung about 6 inches from the floor. Into this I set another similar length of 4x4 with notches on 2 edges to hold the loop.
    bench horse.jpgrough spoons.jpg

    To use it, I placed a blank under the rope on the top 4x4, then stood in front with one foot on the suspended 4x4 and pushed down to exert holding force. I used it for drawknife shaping and also for hogging out the inside of the bowls with various gouges. I kept a few pine wedges nearby for stabilizing the blank when doing the bowls, as the general sppon shapes were rounded at this point and wanted to spin. I was surprised how much holding power I got from this rig, especially when pulling or pushing the drawknife- it never let go and sent me flying across the room with a 6-inch razor sharp blade (my main concern).

    I'd recommend you try this is you need a quick shave horse or holding station. It worked great on the irregularly shaped spoon blanks - not sure if a straight blank would slide out, but you could always use one of those planks hanging around your neck to stop it like the bodgers do.

    As for the spoons, the turned out great (to me) - here are 7 of them: a big ladle in the middle with a burl for a bowl, several serving spoons, and on the right are two stirring/ tasting spoons. I gave my wife a few lessons on chip carving so she could participate in the gifts, and she designed the chip carvings and final details after I had the finials and all carved and smoothed. They were colored with artists' tube oil paints which I let set for a day, then wiped off (like really slow paste wax), then coated with salad bowl finish - apparently a fast, drying non-toxic oil varnish.
    spoons.jpgspoons detail.jpg

    Please feel free to comment or ask questions about the horse or spoon-making

    Karl

  2. #2
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    Very nice work Karl I am trying , not I said trying, to make soem wooden spoons and have had some success with it. I built a shaving horse and it worksd great but I really need to practise much more.

    I learned a lot from an episode of The Woodwright's Shop when he had a carver in there possibly the gentleman you mentioned. at any rate I ahve not secured an green wood what I ahve is apple and pear both fairly dry so harder to work but it is coming.
    Craftsmanship is the skill employed in making a thing properly, and a good craftsman is one who has complete mastery over his tools and material, and who uses them with skill and honesty.

    N. W. Kay

  3. #3
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    Very nice work Karl.

    One of my future projects is to make a shaving horse. Have made a few spoons, but nothing as whimsical/decorative as yours.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  4. #4
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    Before I made a shaving horse to carve chair spindles, I made a similar devise using a 1 X 6 on edge held in a end vise sloping up at an angle. I carved a groove down the edge to hold the spindle, then used a rope that doubled over the spindle and down to a treadle. Worked great and was easy to make. Used it until I needed a shaving horse at eighteenth century reenactments.
    Life's too short to use old sandpaper.

  5. #5
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    Can you post a few more pics with the back? I am trying to figure out how you kept itr from sliding all over the bench based on the pictures. I really like this idea. I was trying to work with a draw knife the other day and had a terrable time holding the stock in a vise. Uff da.

  6. #6
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    Dan,
    I'll put it back together tomorrow and post some pictures - but it's just held fast with one screw-type bar clamp. It'll only take a minute.

    James, the two "most famous" spoon carvers in this style are Willi and Jogge Sundqvist (father and son, respectively). Jogge makes the appearance circuits these days - I think he may be the one who appeared on Roy's show. If you do a google image search for "sundkvist spoons" you'll see many of theirs and others like them. Next I'll try some of the long bowls. As far as finding green wood to work, the branches I used were about 4-6 inches in diameter, not very big. Keep an eye out for branches snapped off during storms and you should be able to find some. I don't have a froe for splitting either - just hit a thick machete-like knife with a piece of log and the short lengths split easily with the grain. It could be done with a hatchet as well; don't swing it, just hold it where you want the split and smack it with a piece of wood. Working the blanks while green made a big difference, and by cutting away the pith I got no splits as they dried.

    thanks for the compliments,
    Karl

  7. #7
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    Dan, here are some pictures of the shave horse.

    The back end was clamped to my bench top with an old screw-type bar clamp - if you don't have one, I'd use a C-clamp or pipe clamp instead of a modern "squeeze-type" clamp; they just don't generate enough pressure. I also put the 4x4 against one of the bench dogs in the front to prevent it from spinning, but it didn't want to go anywhere - a couple of clamps and scrap blocks on either side of the front could stop this if you're using a lot of side pressure.

    First picture shows the clamp from the rear of the bench and also the notched 4x4 foot pedal with the rope loop in it.

    Second pic shows how the rope is attached and that the foot pedal is off the floor about 4-6 inches

    spoon horse 1.jpgspoon horse 2.jpg

    This shot shows a spoon in place and wedged so I can gouge the inside of the spoon after the handle has been shaped and rounded in the back. The rope is a little frayed- it doesn't take much to sever the fibers with a sharp drawknife. For long-term use I was thinking of covering it with a tube of thick leather or maybe some soft garden hose.
    spoon horse 3.jpg

    Thanks for your interest - good luck with your project
    Karl

  8. #8
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    I have some poplur 4/4 around the shop that will work nicely for this. It looks like you used some soft rope. I think maybe a good piece of manila would work as well. Thanks for the pictures.

  9. #9
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    That's very clever, Karl. It reminds me of the set-up that Michel Auriou uses for hand-setting the teeth in rasps. I suspect that your set-up works better than a traditional shave-horse for this purpose. I have one that I built to the same specifications as Drew Langsner designed for The Country Workshops classes (the older design, not the newer one that he currently makes). It works excedingly well for shaving chair spindles and roughing out cabriole blanks for ball & claw feet, but not so well for spoons. The problem is that the spoons have such sharp curves in them that they won't seat fully on the lower jaw of the shave horse. So that leaves one to work the shaft/bowl of the spoon while it's "hanging in the air" unsupported. I've snapped a lot of spoon blanks this way.

    By the way - I would not bother with a froe. A club and froe are highly useful for splitting straight blanks out of straight-graned oak, but nearly useless for splitting branches or forks.

  10. Dear Karl,
    I know you posted this several years ago, but as a new spoon carver I just wanted to thank you for this advice. I was struggling with keeping my first spoon secured safely when I came upon this post. I used a piece of rope my son found on the beach, some oak my cousin gave me, and a piece of MDF for the foot piece and within five minutes, my problems were solved! The ideas shared on this site never cease to amaze me. Thanks again.
    Jody

  11. #11
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    I'm very glad you were able to use the idea Jody, be sure to show us some spoons when you're done! I have used that clamp arrangement for a number of odd holding chores where I need a third hand, so keep it in mind for other jobs too.

    Sorry for the slow response, It's been a busy few days. Or summer. Now that this blasted patio is almost built, maybe I can get back to woodworking....
    Karl

  12. #12
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    carving spoons

    Quote Originally Posted by Karl Andersson View Post
    I'm very glad you were able to use the idea Jody, be sure to show us some spoons when you're done! I have used that clamp arrangement for a number of odd holding chores where I need a third hand, so keep it in mind for other jobs too.

    Sorry for the slow response, It's been a busy few days. Or summer. Now that this blasted patio is almost built, maybe I can get back to woodworking....
    Karl
    I'm glad to see this thread - I love the idea of the the quick and portable shaving horse! I haven't carved spoons for years but when I started chip carving I read about the traditional Swedish spoons and thought they would be a great project. Your spoons are beautiful. Thanks!

    Do you happen to have a favorite resource for info and pictures of the Swedish style spoons?

    Just for fun, the last spoons I carved were from cocobolo and pink flame, shaped with the bandsaw. These are coffee scoops. (I carved the little curl on the ends to fit the right hand.) To get the volume exactly right I filled the plastic scoop that came with the coffee maker with silly putty then hollowed the wooden scoop until the putty filled the hollow.

    coffee_scoops_PB010307s.jpg coffee_scoops_PB034009comp_s.jpg coffee_scoops_PB044022comp_s.jpg

    JKJ

  13. #13
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    Beautiful shapes, John, and excellent execution. The ones I carve are a little more haphazard, letting the grain define the shape initially, so they're rarely as straight as yours and certainly not uniform in volume!

    It's hard to find many sources of historical designs online to see what the 'base truth" is before seeing a lot of modern interpretations on shape and decoration. I try to find the oldest sources first so I can see how structural and material issues were handled and what decorative elements were used before rotating burrs and sandpaper became the norm.

    Just searching Google Images for "antique Swedish spoon", bowl, etc. will show some ideas, but for descriptions of the work- especially structural shaping, Peter Follansbee's Blog was a good source. He changed his format a little when he went "commercial", but look in his archives for the older spoon and green woodworking posts for lots of detail. His newer spoon posts have less detail- I suspect because he wants you to take a class with him so he can earn a living. His old (pre 2015) postings of spoons for sale show some good decorating ideas.

    Willi Sundqvist's book on traditional Swedish woodworking is good for technique, but it's very basic and doesn't have many good pictures of finished spoons to get ideas for decorating. His son Jogge's website has more modern renditions and his designs are relatively simple. I also look at historic objects/ drawings for ideas for carved decoration - Pennsylvania folk art, artifacts from Viking trading centers, Saami knives, things like that. I like how simple geometric shapes made from a minimum number of cuts can be repeated/ arranged to make designs.

    I hope that's helpful,
    Karl

  14. #14
    Nice shave horse Karl. It perfectly exemplifies both the KISS principle and of course form follows function. I like the price too.
    Dave Anderson

    Chester, NH

  15. #15
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    Thanks Dave, yes it's simple and cheap. Even the Woodpecker version is only $50, but the rope is red.

    I did get the idea from historic pictures of file makers and also a Japanese version (using toes to hold the rope) in The Workshop Book, so not much originality involved
    Karl

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