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A delightful way to spend a day

A delightful way to spend a day

I loved this course and came away with my first spoon and some very clearly taught skills to continue. Highly recommended and a delightful way to spend a day.

Previous PostI’ve found a new passion for carving

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davethebodger

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Here's a puzzle spoon. First pic is a copy I made of a spoon that's part of the lovespoon collection at St Fagins, the National Museum of Wales. You can see an image of the original spoon in the second photo.

I'm fascinated by it as it's quite unlike any other lovespoon I've every seen. The carving is however reminiscent of some primative carving I've seen (in pictures) adorning old Welsh furniture.

So the puzzle is this. Is this a one off spoon or do other similar or related spoons exist. If you know of any please let me kniw as I'd like to do some research on them.

The description on St Fagins website refers to the creatures as a serpent and a bird. What's the significance of those, what's the cultural or religious reference or is this just a random creative oddity?

Link to lovespoon info Inc this spoon https://museum.wales/articles/2012-09-16/Welsh-lovespoons/

Any thoughts welcome. Diolch.

#lovespoon #antiquespoon #stfagins #wales #welshculture #welshhistory

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Happy days. A bit of a surprise to find one of my scoops getting a bit of @barnthespoon love over at spoonclub.co.uk this week. It's pleasing that Barn loves all those little details like the thumb divot and the transition of the handle to the bowl. Oh they're simultaneously simple and such complicated little beasties are spoonises.

On a serious note folks if you're learning to carve spoonclub.co.uk is the best online learning resource out there. Basic membership is just £15 and is so helpful when you're struggling to learn those knife grips and get on top of carving your first few spoons. I recommend it to all my students.

And if you're properly hooked get a years worth of the full membership and immerse yourself. You won't regret it.

OK, carry on carving 🙂

Ps. Sorry scoops are out of stock just now but I'll be doing a big batch in plenty of time for Christmas. Keep watching this feed.
#spoon #carving #sloydlife #whittling #spooncommunity #spoonclub
#scoop #sloyd #slöjd #coffeescoop #tablespoon #measuringspoon #milkpaint #mmsmilkpaint

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Final passes on the super fine 1200 grit belt. The bevel is inked and then touched very gently on to the belt. Too much pressure risks overheating. This process removes the scratch marks from the coarser belts and achieve a near mirror finish. Final step is then a manual stropping with fine compound.

The equipment in use is the @hewnandhone wrap around table for the #sorbyproedge and the #hewnandhone small knife jig.
#knifemaker #knifemaking #sharpening

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Grinding today.

#sorbyproedge #hewnandhone #davethebodger #knifemaking

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Grinding today, shaping the forged blanks, rounding the spine and polishing.

Ready for the next step, which is to grind the bevels and hone them sharper than sharp.

#knife #knifemaker #edgetools #handcrafted #forged #tools #sorbyproedge #hewnandhone #sloyd #slöjd #spooncarving #davethebodger

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Carving spoons with lots of helpers at Apple Day, Days Cottage nr Gloucester.

#spoon #carving #sloydlife #whittling

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A parcel from every spoon carvers favorite blacksmith... Wonder what I'm going to be doing this week?

#hewnandhone #sloydlife #slöjd #sloydknife #spoon #spooncarving #whittlibg #making #knife #knifemaker

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So an update on the shaving sheaths. See my previous post about planing thick wooden shavings to weave into knife sheaths.

So it turned out the pine was too fragile and cracked. So I tried a couple of other scraps and this slow grown sweet chestnut works very well. Doesn't crack when soaked and used as weavers.

I'll be painting these up once they're dry so they're easier to spot if you drop them in you spoon shavings.

#sheaths #weavingwood #sloyd #slöjd

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An experiment, that's looking hopeful. As I'm running short of bark for little knife sheaths, I've been experimenting with different material. These thick pine shavings look promising. The wood is and old panel from the door of a cupboard. It's been waiting in the corner of my shed for years, waiting to be useful. If this works OK then it'll become a lot of little sheaths 🙂

#reuse #shavings #weavingwood #laths #sloydlife #upcycle #recycle

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Have just sent some hi-res images of my #welshstickchairs into @theworldofinteriors magazine for their Inspiration pages. I certainly find these chairs inspiring, I'd like to think some other folks will too.

#chairmaking #chair #handmadefurniture #greenwoodwork #davethebodger #democraticchair #sloyd #slöjd #craft #ebonised #naturalmaterials

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SPOONS ARE GOOD FOR YOU... it’s official.

I'm planning to get down to Cornwall for this event. I know so many people, including myself, who talk about the health benefits of spoon carving, green woodworking and making by hand with natural materials.

Come and join us for this wonderful exhibition. Calling all West Country carvers, come and see us at the gallery, bring your tools and spoons. Opening party on Sunday 20th at 4pm... if you want to be involved, to meet up, carve, buy a T shirt, hang out with other spoon carvers in the gallery, Join us... everyone welcome. The gallery is near the Tate and the beach!
PLEASE REPOST TO SPREAD THE WORD.

Reposted from @deborahschneebelimorrell

#spoonsaregoodforyou #aspoonadaykeepsthedoctoraway #aspoonfulofmedicine #spoonfest #spoonclub #spoonlove #spooncommunity #makingisgoodforyou #spoonwise

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Weaving bark sheaths from birch bark. If you want to know how to do this there's some excellent tutorials on YouTube. I'd particularly recommend one featuring Paul Adamson you'll find if you search for: zed outdoors bark sheath

I'm definitely not very experienced at this but these are pretty simple and work well enough. It's good to be using natural materials, this bark was collected from birch trees felled in a local garden where they'd overgrown the space and were blocking light and tangling with wires. They were replaced by fruit trees on semi dwarfing rootstock that will be more suitable for the garden.

#knifemaking #birchbark #birch #bark #naturalmaterials #barkweaving #sloyd #slöjd #craft #handcrafted #handmade

About Dave

Dave Cockcroft is a green wood craftsman, designing and making furniture and household items from fresh cut local hardwoods. Furniture is made from ash, oak and elm whilst spoons are carved from fruitwood and sycamore.

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I run spoon carving courses regularly throughout the year. Most courses are suitable for beginners, check course details before booking.

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I can sometimes be persuaded to help folks with their websites - it is what I done for many years but I'm trying to live a more analog life now.

© 2019 Dave Cockcroft

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