Ask This Old House Makes a Spoon

[AHill]

In today's episode, they take some old growth white pine and make a spoon.  It turned out OK, and they only used hand tools to make it, but the process wasn't traditional.  They did all the shaping of the handle before carving out the bowl.  Somehow, they managed to use a vise and a bench dog to secure it to the workbench.  Isn't it easier to carve the bowl BEFORE you start shaping, when the top and bottom of the spoon are two parallel flat planes?  It's easier to hold at that point, yes?  Their spoon turned out well, but they didn't use the process I would have chosen.

[Bruce Haugen]

I’ve made spoons, cutting the shape of the handle first, but before rounding it over.  Once it’s round there’s much less to hold onto.  I’ve done it the other way, too.  I wasn’t wild about Tommy carving the bowl pulling the business end of the gouge towards himself.  I don’t know if this is SOP, but it sure gives me the willies.

[Bibliophile 13]

It all depends. When I make a spoon at my workbench in a vise, I always carve the bowl first because it’s easier to clamp the blank before the hand is shaped. However, Sloyd-style carving is the other way around. You carve the bowl last because it’s much easier to grip a finished handle. In practice, you can do it either way. I’m guessing that he heard that “spoon carvers dish the bowl last,” so that’s what he did, not taking into account the reasons one would do it that way.

[opticsguy]

I always carve my bowl first, much easier to manage the workpiece.