Greenwood Journey

My whole family takes a trip to the beach every summer. I greatly enjoy the time with my loved ones, the good food, and the chance to recharge and relax. I’m not one to just sit on the sand and watch the waves, however. A few years ago, I grabbed a few small of chunks of driftwood, and with my nearly ever-present pocket knife, carved out some very crude boats.

Just before our trip last year, my niece gave me a starter set of carving knives, including a hook knife. During our last vacation, I made spoons instead of boats. By the end of the week, I was hooked.

YouTube research followed, and I saw people make wooden spoons many different ways. Blanks roughed out on band saws led to Barn the Spoon’s silent spoon carving. From there, Spoon Club’s Spoonfest videos pointed me to David Fisher and his blog. I don’t know either of them, but I found their work, and their love of their craft inspiring. Further down this road I came across Jögge Sundqvist (his instructional series for Morakniv is fantastic) and a completely new word: Sloyd.

Sloyd goes much deeper than spoon carving, and I haven’t even scratched the surface when it comes to learning this way of working with wood. But, there is a rich link between craft and material that is incredibly rewarding.

Since that last beach trip, I’ve carved a few more spoons, so far just from flat pieces of wood in the shop. As I’ve read and learned, crooks and branches offer opportunities for beautiful variations in design.

In December, I had to trim back two Bradford Pear trees in our front yard, and I saved some wood for spoon projects. I had a little bit of time in the shop last night and roughed a blank out of one crook I kept.

This will be my first spoon from a crook, and I’m still learning how to use a hatchet for the rough work. I may have left it a little chunky, but I’ll give it a few days to dry and, I’ll finish it up. We’ll see how it turns out.

Everyone has different goals for their shop, and while I’m not getting rid of my power tools anytime soon, I don’t see this journey stopping with a few spoons either.