Simply functional

[Mark Yundt]

My wife and I enjoy cooking. Wood utensils have a limited life it seems as one of our favorite paddle type tools is turning itself into a fork by splitting. So I merely duplicated it in Cherry and added a few minor mods to make it more to my liking. This one is handy for turning piles of food in a pan or pushing pasta into the water to have it cook evenly. I also matched the radius to the curve of our pans to "sweep" around the perimeter of the pan.

The spoon/ladle in Maple was made because I just felt like making it. Handy for tasting soups without burning your lips on a metal spoon or fishing out a few extra meatballs and sauce.

I think I have to make more for myself and family in a variety of shapes and sizes. I know I need one for lifting the frond after deglazing a pan!

The first two shots are out of sequence. Sorry! It only took two chisels to carve these. The 9 and the 5 shown.

[Mark Yundt]

Knocked out two more after lunch. One is more like a ladle and the other just for stirring. We had one that was supposed to resemble a spoon shaped object but it was useless as one. It got relegated to stirring so I made one in a similar shape but it doesn't pretend to be a spoon.
I don't care for round handles so I leave the top flat and the bottom is a tapered radius. It feels good in your hand and registers immediately where the tool is on your hand. Buried in a deep pot you know just where and how it is located. A round handle leaves you no clue.
Also the deeper ladle was left over from the earlier spoons cut out so I just used that cut off profile and turned it into a ladle. Same goes for the paddle shaped piece. I wanted a ladle curved to be able to reach into a pot and the deepest part of the bowl is near the front lip. Works well!

[Terry Beadle]

Nice spoons!!

Nothing like a good tool in your hand when cooking. Especially chili ! Hoot!

Do you use a flat bottomed spoke shave for the tapered radius on the bottom side of the handles?

Thanks for posting !

[Mark Yundt]

Thanks Terry,
a spoke shave could be used but I don't have one. A few passes with a chisel, since it's already in my hand, makes short work of it.
several of these got pressed into service ( after I convinced my wife to use them!) making Buddha bowls. Rice got stirred along with lentils and a curry sauce. Stirring, tasting , spooning it out was nice using tools I just made. Fun.

[Mike Willeson]

Nice looking spoons Mark. Any finish on them or use them raw?

[Mark Yundt]

On a couple I did use some oil.
After dips in hot sauces/ pasta water there was some grain lift.
Light sand, scuff really and there doing just fine.

[ray hampton]

Nice looking spoons Mark. Any finish on them or use them raw?

if you are finish with them then give them away

[Jim Underwood]

Simple, functional, and graceful. I like that in a tool. Especially if one makes it oneself.

[Mark Yundt]

You're right Jim.
Now that I've convinced my wife to use them she says I have to make some for the rest of the family! She says the design of each fits different needs just perfectly compared to the store bought ones. Scraping, stirring, ladling etc.

designs based on my cooking time and what was actually needed in a tool paid off .

[Paul Kasman]

I am surprised to see it looks like you use carving gouges even to remove rough stock in hard wood. Would this be a place for a firmer gouge? I'm never sure where exactly one is supposed to use firmer gouges. Perhaps, they have lost there rationale

[Mark Yundt]

Firmer chisels are fine if you're cutting square pockets for mortise and tenon joints. I was making a bowl shape so a curved chisel fit the bill much better. A square straight chisel makes a terrible bowl shape.
In my opinion firmer chisels aren't suited for wood carving as such. I have relatively few straight chisels as in most situations in carving a straight is seldom used. Even when trying to flatten the bottom if a relief carving for example. They just get you into trouble and do a lousy job of it.
Even making vertical stop cuts in a straight line I'll never reach for a straight type chisel. Here too there are other chisels that do a much better job.
As to using carving chisels in hardwood? That's all that's used. There is nothing else that can do the job . It's been done for centuries. You can pretty much name a hardwood and I've carved it with these chisels with the same angle I use on basswood. To me there is no difference. And it makes sense.

[Paul Kasman]

Mark, thanks for your reply. I may be having trouble with the terminology, but I have curved gouges, vintage gouges, that have much heavier shoulders than modern carving gouges and I am told that they are "firmer gouges." That is what I was referring to. I have a fair number of them and I am never really sure where to use them. I just assume they are for carving like what you were doing. If you are going to really beat on them in hard wood. I saw the picture with your modern thin shouldered carving tools and I just can't imagine going through all the work of regrinding and reshaping because you chipped your tool in some hard wood. Sometimes I think I see a steady evolution in gouges, originally with very thick shoulders down to thinner and thinner shoulders until the modern carving gouge that has almost no shoulder at all.

I will try to post some pictures.

[Mark Yundt]

Paul,
Were you were talking about chisels such as these which I'd call Firmer Gouges or if flat as you seem to imply as Firmer Chisels?
If so then in my opinion they have no place in carving. They are the equivalent of using a Monkey Wrench do automotive work.
They would be useful if you were hollowing out a log to make a canoe but not decorative , Architectural type work of any kind.
They are way too large and cumbersome and the steel too fat to be of any service. Even in 'hard' woods.
They are just too clumsy and bulky to do delicate work.
I don't know one carver who would consider using them even for large rough out work let alone actual carving.
These remind me of some of the current lines of chisels with the heavy steel etc. that is just , in my opinion , awful to try and use. Flat out they don't work.

As to the history and evolution of carving chisels these were never in vogue. Look at the chisels the father of carving ,Gibbons , used. They don't look anything like the photo. And look at the work he did.
His chisels used centuries ago look very much like mine or some of the vintage pieces I have.
They weren't Firmer type tools.
Carving is one thing. Timber framing is another.

As far as carving harder woods such as Ash, Oak, Cherry etc. the typical chisels work just fine. And there is no need to go changing the bevels from woods such as basswood to something like Oak.To me that's just nonsense thinking you need different bevels. The bevels I use for Bass is the same for Oak. Granted hard woods present some challenges but why make it worse by making a steeper bevel and making your life more difficult. Which will win, steel or wood? And if you're chipping edges you're doing something wrong. Carve with a chisel . It's not a pry bar. That's when chisels chip. And after having many of my chisels for over 25 yrs. and carving all types of wood they are none the worse for wear. I carve everything , every day. That's a lot of carving , setting an edge,sharpening, honing, etc. and they have years left in them.

[Paul Kasman]

Yes, those are the gouges I was thinking of. Well, thanks for clearing up these matters. I'm surprised you can use the same bevel angle in oak as bass. I'm new to carving. I appreciate that you post your work and insights. Thanks Mark.

[Mark Yundt]

Your welcome.
yup, same angle. Some will say you need a steeper angle. Some say you need different chisels with heavy shafts. I never paid any attention. Neither has any other carver I know that makes a living doing this.