I'm working dry cherry and hand carving wooden spoons for holiday presents. I'm new to this but the shaping of handles and bowl bottoms has gone well with a spokeshave and rasps and files.
I think my gouges (25mm #7 and 20 mm #5 Ashley Iles) are well sharpened but need to use a mallet for the early bowl cuts as arm and torso are not strong enough to remove much wood initially. My problem is that the spoon moves with the mallet blows, despite using a TWW holdfast and wooden block over the distal handle near the bowl. As the work progresses, slicing gouge cuts and the hook knife do a good job with final shaping and movement is not a problem.
I have a heavy metalworking vise bolted to the bench which, if I removed the plastic jaws, would hold the spoon bowl steady at the price of marring the outside of the bowl. I guess I could carve the hollow first and shape the outside afterwards but wonder if there is a cradle or jig I could use to secure the spoon directly against the bench and rotate it as needed? Wooden handscrews perhaps? Thank you for any help.