New knives

Here are a couple of knives from the fantastic blacksmith and all-round nice guy Ben Orford. They are both handled with apple wood and the blades are 01 tool steel. I really like the handle on the sloyd knife (the smaller of the two), but I've found myself using the larger 'woodlander' more often. With a full tang, it's a very strong knife, allowing me to make big, powerful cuts with confidence. Recently I've been doing a lot of my carving indoors, so this knife is able to quickly remove wood in areas where I might otherwise use an axe.
Aside from being very functional items, I find both of these knives to be aesthetically great and incredibly comfortable to use for extended periods.

Birch and sycamore spoons

 A small bowled birch spoon with a thin handle.

 A shallow sycamore with a short handle and a bit of detailing on the end of the handle.

A spalted birch eating spoon. I quite like the shape of this one.

A ladle and an eating spoon

The ladle is in birch. Unfortunately there is a tiny hole in the bowl, probably caused by an insect. It is a very small hole and probably won't make a difference to its use.

This is a mystery wood taken from a firewood pile. It's got a lovely colour and grain to it. Let me know if you can name the wood.

A Busy Few Months

Here's most of what I carved while on the farm in Devon. I've been off it for a couple of months now. While I've got some sycamore and birch here I haven't managed to do anything with it yet. Still, I'm happy with this little collection at least.

A Set of Hazel Spoons

As a little challenge for myself, I wanted to see if I could carve a set of similar spoons. So far, most of my spoons have all been of different designs. Here I've managed to create a set of four spoons with a passable likeness to one-another.  

Pine work

Here a few more pieces I've churned out from the pine I've been working with. I'm much happier with this kuksa than the last one. For one, it's not splitting, which is always a bonus and I fine the shape to be better. If I were to do it again I would try to get the handle to slope down a little more steeply.

My Mora 120 is thrown in there for scale.

Spoons in Iraq

 

A sample from the past 6 months.

Pine

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus spork (my first!)

Not entirely sure what wood this is. It's pretty light and porous.

From pine root.

Eucalyptus

I'm pretty happy with the end of the handle here.

Eucalyptus

Pine kuksa

I'm fairly happy with the shape of this, except the front of this began to split. After soaking it in coffee I think I let it dry too quick. I had it in a plastic bag covered in wood-chips but I think desert conditions warrant a slightly different approach!