spoon endeavors (disasters?)
mike recchione
>Well, it was a beautiful day here in Northern NJ, and my wife was taking the kids for a play date this aftenoon, so I figured I'd have another shot at the spoon challenge. Last summer I decided that my basement shop, while very cozy and inviting in bad weather, is depressing when it's warm and sunny out. I fixed up a corner of the garage as a nice weather shop, and had just about finished a new, small bench for it, right under the window, when it got too cold to work out there.
Today was going to be the maiden voyage of the new bench and the nice weather shop, and it was a great day for it. I gathered up the tools I thought I'd need, (I still don't have the garage shop fully equipped, and I don't think I'll ever leave my good carving tools out there), and got ready to work. Of course there were about 100 trips back downstairs to get things I forgot, but that was OK.
I picked out a piece of rough 4/4 cherry from the scrap pile, and set about spoon making. This piece of wood was very dry, included both heart and sapwood, and had a few checks in it. I split it in half, drew something spoonlike on one side, and rough hollowed it. After that, I cut the outline with a turning saw and started shaping the back. Got about 40 minutes into it and was starting to worry about finishing in time, when...ooops - one of the checks that I thought didn't go very far decided that all this commotion was a good reason to continue it's journey through the bowl of the spoon.
Ah, I said, I never liked that spoon anyway. So I grabbed the other half of the board, drew another spoon and repeated the drill. I was much more careful about a bunch of things this time. I had the bowl hollowed out, the hang-hole drilled and the outline sawed by the time the timer said twenty minutes. Plenty of time, I figured. I kept the front flat while I did all the shaping of the back, and was just about done with it. The time was now 47 minutes in to the spoon. OK - so I probably won't make the deadline, I thought. No big deal - I really like this spoon.
When the timer said 58 minutes, I had the bowl pretty smooth, the back pretty well shaped, and decided to lighten the handle by taking a little more off the front, and rounding it a little more. I laid it down on the bench, used a #4 gouge to make a stop cut to define where the bowl and handle would meet. Hit the gouge with the mallet and CRACK. The spoon broke in exactly the same way and as a result of exactly the same mistake that caused the one I made last week to break.
I thought I had learned my lesson last week, but I guess I got cocky. Maybe next time I'll actually remember that you don't bang on a spot that's not fully supported by the bench. I had kept the front totally flat as I worked the back, but the back wasn't flat - I should have made all my stop cuts before shaping the back. Or made the stop cuts with a knife instead of banging them in with a gouge and mallet. Maybe I'll remember next time. I have become obsessed with the need for a pancake batter spoon, and won't quit until I produce one if it takes me the rest of my life! (BTW - I don't even eat pancakes :-) But I do make them for the kids on Sunday mornings, so I NEED a better batter spoon. I don't know how I've survived this long using a ladle.)
In any case, spending a sunny, 70 degree afternoon making shavings in a breezy garage, perched in front of a window with a nice view of Spring starting to happen is nothing like a wasted day in my book, and I really love my new shop space.
So - when does this challenge end, anyway? Is there a special mention for the most failures? Perseverence? :-)