My spoon

I finally finished my first spoon today with encouragement from Laura.

I had a sugar maple sapling maybe 3" in diameter that came down back in the back yard earlier this week. Today I took my folding saw, a Silky Pocket Boy 170, and sectioned the trunk into three pieces. The first two were approximately 8" long and the third probably 18". This gave me two spoon blanks and a baton.

I used the Bark River Aurora to do the batonning and I split the blank into a rough spoon/paddle shape. Then I set to carving the handle into round and shaping the "bowl" into a bowl shape. Using a split round to form my spoon is an idea I got from Tom Porter at the Briar Patch campout a few weeks ago. It works far better for me than trying to rough out a spoon shape using some other method.

Once I had the spoon shaped out I took a couple of hot coals and began the long process of burning out the bowl. For this I used a straw and a pair of barbecue tongs to move hot coals onto the spoon and cold coals back into the hot coals.

I'm not sure just how long it took to burn out the bowl but I am satisfied with the final result. I have a spoon that holds water, handles well, and was made completely by me. Sure, it looks like it's my first spoon but that isn't a problem for me.

Thanks for reading,


B