Spoon carving can be a pretty simple craft to learn, all you have to do is throw yourself at it. That being said there are a couple of things that will make the process a whole lot easier.
Here are the top five tips I’ve come up with to get you carving beautiful spoons in no time.
1. Get the RIGHT tools
This is a given for anything you want to do, be it mowing the lawn or building a house. The right tools will make everything so much easier, and the easier it is the more likely you are to succeed.
The same applies for spoon carving. All you need to do is go out and buy some supplies. If you have read my post on how to carve a spoon you probably already know what to get. In case you haven’t read it yet there are two main tools that you will need to buy.
The first of these tools is HOOK KNIFE. A hook knife has a curved blade that makes carving out the bowl of the spoon fairly easy, as long as you get the technique down. These blades are around thirty dollars and can be purchased online or at your local craft store.
I would HIGHLY recommend spending a little money on one of these knives. Once you figure out how to use them busting out a spoon will be no problem at all. They are also incredibly affordable compared to the tools necessary for other spoon carving techniques.
The second tool you need to get is a CARVING KNIFE. This one isn’t absolutely necessary since you could theoretically use any knife out there to carve a spoon. But a sharp carving blade makes things much easier.
There are a couple of defining features that make carving knifes better. Most notably a shorter blade for more maneuverability a different blade shape. If you’re still not convinced just think about it, the blade is SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED for one purpose. To carve.
You may also need to get a couple more things unless you have them laying around the house. The tools would include a hatchet, hand saw, and sandpaper.
Once you have to right tools you are already set up for success. All you have to do now is learn how to use them.
2. Learn HOW to use your tools
This is a little more complicated than going out and buying a couple of things. Yhere are several ways you could go about tackling it.
The way I learned how to use my tools, and the way I RECOMMEND that you learn too, is to attend a spoon carving work shop or primitive skills gathering. This is pretty simple as all you have to do is a bit of research on the internet.
NOTE: The picture above shows my local skills gathering where I was first exposed to spoon carving.
Attending a class or workshop will be the best option. You will have a HANDS ON experience and the help of an instructor who knows what they are doing. This will make it much easier to quickly master the tools you are using.
There is only one slight problem with this method. This being the fact that there are so many different ways to carve spoons that you have to be mindful which one you are signed up to learn. A lot of the methods will be harder to apply once you get home, which can DISCOURAGE you from carving more spoons.
I would watch out for any class or workshop that teaches dry wood carving, check out this post to figure out what that is. The methods involving dry wood often involve more complex tooling and are just harder in my opinion.
What you want to sign up for are classes that teach green wood carving. In these classes you are most likely to learn a spoon carving method that will be easy to apply at home.
Another issue with signing up for a class is that they might use different a different tool to carve out the spoons bowl instead of a hook knife. This is totally fine as long as you haven’t already bought to hook knife. Two ways to get around this method are to BUY YOUR TOOLS AFTER THE CLASS, or research what tools are going to be used in the class.
The next best method that I know of to learn how to use spoon carving tools is to research about the techniques. You can do this any way you want to. Like on YouTube, internet forums or a spoon carving book. This will work if you are good at figuring things out by yourself.
I actually ended up combining these two methods by taking a couple classes and doing a lot of YouTube research. So do what you are comfortable with.
3. Learn how to SHARPEN your tools
Since sharp tools are the most important part of carving you might as well know how to sharpen them BY YOURSELF.
As per usual there are a couple different methods to go about this.
The way I learned was to take a class on sharpening at my local primitive skills gathering. There was a very skilled instructor there who taught me how to use a stone to sharpen blades. Most people consider using a stone as a difficult process. That is true, but there are SEVERAL BENEFITS of learning how to do it this way.
First off you get a very good understanding of the BLADE ANGLES. This will be very helpful if you decide to move to sharpening with power tools later on, as it will prevent you from ruining your blade.
Second you will have a skill that can be applied ANYWHERE. Meaning that as long as you have a stone of some kind it doesn’t matter if you’re sitting on a couch or bushwhacking in the jungle, you can sharpen your knives.
And third you won’t have to worry about spending loads of money on USELESS sharpening jigs.
There are also countless videos, forums and books out there on how to sharpen with a stone. You could try and learn from these, but it would be much better to take a class. In most cases there will be both carving classes and sharpening classes in the same skills gathering.
4. Get the right WOOD
There isn’t much to getting the right wood, but if you get it wrong the results can be pretty discouraging.
There are only a couple of ways that a type of wood can be the “wrong” one for a beginner to carve spoons in. The first thing that comes to mind is that the wood contains a PITH. A pith is a really soft heart wood that will make it difficult for you to carve the spoons bowl. Most woods that contain a pith are also too soft and would probably not hold up good in the long run.
The second thing you need to watch out for are KNOTS in the wood. A knot is a place in the tree where a branch used to grow out of. They are really hard and tend to cause all sorts of problems if you don’t know how to handle them. Carving full force into a knot may deflect your blade and wreck havoc on your spoon. It is best to stay away from knotty wood until you have a bit of spoon carving experience.
Other than that there isn’t much else to focus on when choosing your wood. I pretty much use anything available.
5. practice, Practice, PRACTICE
Now that you have all this knowledge the only thing left to do is apply it, as many times as you can. Practice is KEY to getting beautiful looking spoons.
That being said there are a couple of things you should keep in mind while practicing. The main one is that you need to be able to ACCEPT FAILURE and learn from it. Failing is the best way to learn, as long as you don’t give up. Figure out what you did wrong and try again. This time make sure not to make the same mistake. If you make another mistake, try one more time.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it will take a while for your spoons to show improvement. I had to make at least twenty to thirty spoons before they started to turn out nice. Again, DON’T GIVE UP.
I know that this concept has most likely already been drilled into you, but I couldn’t write this post without at least mentioning it.
Conclusion
To wrap this all up, all you really have to do to make a good spoon is give it a go. Once you get going it’ll only get easier. And as long as you keep these five tips in mind, you should be on the path to success.
Just remember:
- Go out and buy the RIGHT tools
- Learn how to PROPERLY use your tools
- Learn how to keep your tools SHARP
- Use the RIGHT wood
- And above all PRACTICE
Do you have any spoon carving tips of your own?