Spoonfest 2012

August was a lucky month as it saw the "First International Celebration of the Carved Wooden Spoon" i.e. Spoonfest. It was in Edale in the Peak District and was great, a little bit of rain couldn't dampen anyone's spirits. Guest lecturers from all over the world and late night campfire singing made for a fantastic weekend.

The Vale of Edale

The rain didn't last that long...

Mankind's ingenuity surfaced as John sliced his toast with a pruning saw.

Worlds largest spoon club with my new friends Owen, Ruth and Anna and others I didn't get to know.

Campfire shenanigans with the Cowboy Bodgers 

Living Wood 2012

This is the first in a poor chronological order of posts of woody/country things I have been upto this summer.

My brother Jack and I visited Mike Abbott in his bit of wood in Herefordshire this August to make ourselves a couple of greenwood chairs. It was an amazing week with great company, good food and plenty of singing. The rain held off too. Oh, and there was a chicken, on a raft...

The Students: Mike (with son Aiden), Margaret, Laura, Will, Caz, John, Tom and Jack

The Workshop

The Combi-boiler - our hot water, oven and drying boxes. I managed to make pizza in the oven and used the drying boxes to prove the dough!

Testing the joints of a side panel

The tense cramping up phase

You can see Jacks little rocking chair in the background

I was born 45 years old and therefore rock the apron...

A bit of help from Owen (after he had beaten my chair)

The finished article

3 - 3 twill woven seat in Danish Cord

Now I have managed to buy, beg and steal enough kit to start making my own chairs (well, stools to start with) so stay tuned for more chairyness to come.

Some extra pics of the set up:

The barracks

From the out side - a massive tent made from bent hazel rods and a lorry tarpauline. Home to all of the horse flies in Hereforshire and two very bitten brothers for a week.

One of the wooden huts

Carved Spoons

Just a few pics of spoons I have carved... I've started selling a few so I don't end up with elaborate kindling...

Plum and apple servers, spatula and ladle

Plum eaters

Pear, birch and willow eaters and stirrer in my trademark style

Octagonal handled eaters in hazel, birch and plum

Plum butter knives

More plum butter knives

Frittiof inspired birch server and salad tongs

Matching birch server and birch / plum eaters

Willow, cherry and birch eaters

Apple eaters or maybe salad tongs?

Tiny plum spoon - its very pale as it is still green and unseasoned

This is a spoon I bought from Barn the Spoon and is a server made from bay and is beautiful. The obvious cut marks which I strive to remove in my own spoons stand so plainly and enhance the natural simplicity despite the obvious technical skill which has created a symmetrical, graceful, usable spoon. I love it. 

This is a special spoon I carved for a special birthday.

1st post - Homemade and repaired tools

As a sound start to my blogging career I have decided to post some pictures of tools I have made or repaired.

Laura's knife

After making some lovely new friends on a recent course I offered to take one of their knives home to repair as one of the scales had fallen off. I scrounged a bit of American Walnut and a bit of fiddling in the shed resulted in this finished beauty. (Araldite and tiny bolts will hopefully prevent any recurrence...)

Handmade knives

Two of my knives, the top one is a Julius Petersson (I know, I fell straight into that Ray Mears pit-fall) with antler, leather and apple-wood sections, the rat-tail tang is riveted over a small brass washer. The bottom one is completly homemade and was a bit of a marathon to complete ~3 years of action and hiding in a draw. After softening an old file with help from a farrier I removed the teeth and profiled a Ray Mears-esque (again) profile and 4mm thickness. Holes were drilled to take brass rod and tube then with the help of a blacksmith uncle I hardened and tempered the blade. A combination of Araldite glue, black fibre-liner and beech wood scales was finished with brass and plenty of sanding and shaping. 

Handmade Micro-Froe

Another old file was upcycled (just learnt that word) into this great new tool for splitting spoon blanks and chair components. I ground it to shape and welded it to a section of old water pipe. the handle is a piece of ash off the log pile that I turned on a power lathe and is about 11" long, the blade is 5.5" long and 5mm thick. I ground a fairly blunt angle onto the lowest edge and away I went. I ummed-and-arred over tempering but general consensus and experience so far suggests its not necessary. 

Shave Horse

This is my new shave horse - Bullseye - he is collapsible and amazing, a fair bit cheaper than other horses I know of too... I managed to pilfer all of the components from the shed and put him together in an afternoon... Its only a matter of time before my spooney/chairy empire takes flight...