Spoon carving at Boiling Wells in Bristol, with the Boiling Wellness group

In July, I got the welcome chance to return to Boiling Wells in St Werburghs to teach spoon carving. 

After four and a half years working there, funding cuts meant that I was made redundant in 2014. I had been back a couple of times to teach since then and it is always good to see the place develop and grow.

This time, I was spoon carving with the 'Boiling wellness' group. It was great to be back in the nature reserve, carving wood with enthusiastic volunteers. We had a lot of fun and everyone got the chance to try a range of woodworking tools, some of which they might not have come across otherwise.

Doing spoon carving sessions with groups is always interesting as people come up with such a range of designs and styles when given the chance to do so. Once they had got the hang of using the tools safely, there was plenty of room for creativity to come out; working with the grain patterns in the wood for example. I hope that people have had the chance to finish their spoons with the techniques we discussed and that they all enjoyed the day as much as I did!

A kuksa (wooden vessel for food or drink) from Finnish Lapland

My Finnish friend Mika came to visit and had brought along his kuksa. A kuksa is a traditional Scandinavian vessel used for some foods and for drinking.  They are interesting to make and very comfortable to hold.

Mika's kuksa had been made near Raudanjoki (which means 'iron river') in the middle of Finnish Lapland. 

He described to me how a traditional kuksa is made from a burr (or 'burl' in the US) of birch (Betula sp.) that has grown in the far north of Scandinavia. Birch timber has no strong taste and is not toxic. These northern trees also grow more slowly and have denser timber than their more southerly-growing relatives, which makes them ideal to use.

A burr is a rounded growth caused by the tree dealing with an irritant or disease. It would be detached from the rest of the tree and then peeled to reveal the timber, which is then shaped using knives to create the kuksa. The rounded shape of the burr means that the grain travels in a curve around the bowl of the vessel, so it is stronger. The dots of dormant buds held in the grain pattern of the burr also help, as they break up the grain to reduce lines of weakness in the kuksa's bowl and so prevent damage to it.

Mika also told me that the first thing to be drunk from a new kuksa in Finland is usually good cognac. I was surprised, as it isn't a drink normally associated with Scandinavia. He explained that cognac is considered to be enhanced by being drunk from a kuksa and it also improves the vessel too, in a way that more traditional Scandinavian liquors such as aquavit or vodka don't. He used his to drink mainly coffee now and only washes it using water (not detergent) in the traditional way.

Teaching woodcarving at my studio in Bristol - spoon carving lessons in the sunshine

Yesterday, I spent a very pleasant day teaching two students spoon carving at my studio.

 

First, we discussed different kinds of tools that were available and the pros and cons of each. There were a selection of several different styles of axes, knives, hook knives and spoonbit gouges for them to try out and see which they preferred.

Both chose cherry wood to make their spoons, which I have to say is one of my favourite carving timbers. It's great for spoons as it carves well, is non-toxic and has nice colours and grain patterns throughout. Another good timber is sycamore (Acer pseudo-platanus), a tree that I have heard was introduced into Britain in ancient times for the purpose of making eating utensils .

First, we cleaved the logs using different kinds of axe and also discussed using a froe and mallet.

Then we chatted about different knife carving techniques that would be useful. I recommended a couple of books for further reading (Swedish Carving Techniques by Wille Sundqvist and Green Woodwork by Mike Abbott) and let them have a flick through each if they wanted to. There was also a spoon carved by Barn the Spoon to hand, for inspiration and to discuss the finer points of spoon design if it was required.

We then spent a few hours happily carving, with me on hand for advice if needed. We discussed regrinding the blades of the widely-available Frost hook knives so that they work better, although both of them preferred using the spoonbit gouges to hollow out the spoon bowl. To be honest, I prefer to use the gouges for this job and so, apparently, does Mike Abbott. There was also time for a chat after lunch about sharpening tools and honing them using a strop.

The spoons were coming on nicely by the end of the day and were taken home to be worked on until the next session. I'm looking forward to the next workshop in May, when we will discuss transferring images onto panels and carving them using traditional hand tools.

Teaching woodcarving to young people at the Tree Life Centre in Kingswood, Bristol

The Tree Life Centre is run by the TCV (Trust for Conservation Volunteers) and is situated at the back of Grimsbury Farm in the Kingswood area of Bristol. The centre is looking to get local groups more involved, so that they can benefit from the resources it has to offer. As part of this, I was invited to run some woodcarving workshops there yesterday for children from various local schools.

It was a lovely day, just right for early spring; clear and sunny with daffodils nodding all around us.

The young people, some of whom had learning difficulties, really seemed to enjoy the chance to try a new activity. There were some promising young carvers amongst them too!

Spoon carving in the sunshine; running a workshop with young people at Boiling Wells in Bristol

It was a beautiful day last Friday - the perfect day to carve a spoon!

I was invited to teach spoon carving to a group of four young people who aren't getting along with conventional education. They could choose from a variety of different timbers (including holly, cherry, lime and sycamore) and also had a range of tools to try; various shapes of axe, different styles of knife, hook knives and spoonbit gouges.

Of course, they were shown how to use all of the tools safely before getting stuck in with them.

There were some very nice spoons made by the end of the day, they just needed a bit of finishing off to be done at home.

Anna and Bill, staff at the St Werburghs City farm, also couldn't resist having a go at carving in the sunshine themselves.

All in all, a great way to spend the day!

Visiting Barn the Spoon, spoon carving at his shop on Hackney Road in London

Barnaby Carder, or Barn the Spoon as most people now know him, is a man dedicated to one particular passion; carving wooden spoons.

He has spent time with many well-known faces in green woodworking, people like Robin Wood and Mike Abbott. However, Barn's path is definitely his own. When I asked him if he'd mind me writing about him on this blog, he said that he didn't but that he neither looked for nor really needed publicity.  A lot of people are very interested in what he does and the shop isn't usually short of visitors. 

Some woodworkers can be a little taciturn (well suited to a workshop-orientated life I suppose) but Barn was friendly and happy to chat about his projects, surrounded by wood shavings and tools. It was a very enjoyable afternoon spent talking with him, with occasional breaks so that he could chat with other visitors and customers.

As well as carving the spoons, Barn also teaches spoon carving and organises Spoonfest, a festival of spoon carving that was sold out this year.

It was interesting to hear him say that he didn't have many pictures of his spoons. He was interested in perhaps getting some black-and-white photos one day, as he said that they could show the form of each spoon more clearly. Forms are more important than colours to him in his spoon carving (although the one that he was working on was carved from a beautifully-coloured piece of damson wood). 

The spoons are also left with the facets of the carving cuts still visible. He prefers this finish to sanding, which he feels 'deadens' the surface finish. He also said that, even though he has carved hundreds of spoons, the fascination with it hasn't diminished. In fact, quite the opposite.

The shop at 260 Hackney Road in London is only open from Friday to Sunday, to leave time for other things. The first time that I met him, Barn was sitting on the pavement in Stoke's Croft in Bristol, selling his spoons from a blanket spread out on the ground. He said that he still really values time spent like that and enjoys getting out of the shop to roam when he gets the chance; although that's not too easily done at the moment as he is so busy.

I couldn't resist buying a 'cawl' spoon carved by Barn from rippled sycamore while I was there. Here are some photos of it:

Meeting Tim Gatfield at the Cherry Wood Project, a centre for green woodworking, practical woodland management and education

The Cherry Wood Project is situated near Marshfield in South Gloucestershire.

Eight years ago, Tim Gatfield began the sustainable woodland management project and he and his family live onsite, together with apprentices who stay and work alongside them.

The project has a strong emphasis on living with minimum impact on the environment and also on education, especially in using woodland products. There are several green woodworking courses run there every year and guests can stay in cabins next door.

Thursday is volunteer day and I travelled to Cherry Wood along with my friend Alex Arthur, an expert charcoal burner based around Bristol. Alex is regular visitor there and on this trip was planning to move and set up a charcoal kiln for a burn.

The morning was spent levelling an area for the kiln to sit on, then moving it down the slope from a previous site. It was hard work in the hot sun, but there was a very infectious enthusiasm amongst all the volunteers and I didn't hear any complaints.

It was clear that the people helping really enjoyed being there and the hard work was repaid by a great lunch of chilli, rice, bread and salad and also tea and delicious cake later in the day. The food was cooked in the wood-fired cob oven and hob on site.

After lunch, a group of disengaged young people helped with the kiln and there were plenty of people there, so I lent a hand cutting timber (milled on site from larch trees that grew in these woods) for a reciprocating roof on the new roundhouse.

After a while, there seemed to be enough folks to help there too, so it seemed like time to wander back towards where all the woodworking is done.

Tim (on the left in the picture below) and Charlie, one of the apprentices, were busy sharpening tools for an upcoming green woodworking course and it was definitely a good opportunity to help out. Sharpening carving knives is something that I can happily do all day!

It was also very interesting seeing Merlin nearby, bringing an old two-man saw back to the correct set and sharpness for use on hardwoods. Many of the folks there on Thursdays are obviously also fellow tool nuts and really enjoy discussing sharpening methods etc. I felt right at home!

When the saw was ready, he and Tim put it through its paces and it cut beautifully.

It was a great way to spend a Thursday and thanks to Tim and everyone else for making me so welcome. If you would like to volunteer, visit or are interested in a course, contact details can be found on the Cherry Wood website. I hope to be able to drop by again soon!

Teaching carving for a stag do at my studio

On Saturday, four folks on a stag do came to my studio to do some carving. It was a lovely sunny day and it felt great to be back doing some woodcarving tuition again.

Garry and Hamon decided to carve faces in relief onto pieces of oak. They used a variety of gouges and chisels to create them and the finished pieces were very dynamic. We all felt that they worked well.

Pete and Lorraine chose to carve spoons from fruit woods (plum and cherry). This gave them the chance to use a mallet and froe, drawknife, hook knife, three kinds of fixed-blade and whittling knives, three types of small axe (Scandinavian-style hatchet, Kentish pattern and Swedish Carving) and spoon-bit gouges.

Pete really enjoyed using the Kentish pattern axe and Lorraine the drawknife. They both agreed that spoonbit (short bent) gouges worked far better for them than hook knives when hollowing out the spoon bowls.

It's great giving people the chance to try a range of tools to see for themselves how certain ones just feel better when working than others. Providing all of the tools on offer are of good quality, the most comfortable to use can sometimes really just depend on the user.

When I bought my carving axe, the sales advisor recommended that I hold all of the dozen available ones there to see which felt right for me. It was a real surprise to discover how different they all felt, even though they were all handmade by the same people to the same design.

Everyone got well into their carving and seemed very happy with what they made. Once the carving had finished, we ended the session with a little nip of homemade blackberry whiskey for the non-drivers. A lovely afternoon!

New Forest of Avon Products Cooperative website!

After a long process of designing, the new Forest of Avon Products Coop website is online! I've been a member of the coop for about 7 years. It aims to encourage the use of locally grown and sustainably sourced wood products wherever possible. There are about 35 members at the moment, who range from bespoke furniture makers and fine carvers to roundwood framers and timber growers.

Why not check out the site? It's at:
http://www.forestofavonproducts.co.uk/

Bowl turning on a pole lathe, jousting, birds of prey and an unlucky king at Carisbrooke Castle.

Carisbrooke Castle is a very interesting place. It lies just outside Newport, the Isle of Wight's biggest town. There are signs of settlement there going back to pre-Roman times, but most of the fortifications date to later than the Norman keep that sits on the motte (or mound) overlooking the site.

The castle has been remodelled several times, which can be seen even at the entrance gatehouse.

The lower part was built in 1335 and has cross-shaped firing points, for bows and crossbows. The gatehouse was extended above the horizontal lines around it in 1378, when the French threatened to attack it during the Hundred Years War. The extended part has circular holes with slits and would be used by defenders firing handguns.

There was extensive remodelling of the castle during the sixteenth century under the guidance of Sir George Carey, due to the threat from the Spanish Armada. However, some of the buildings from this time are now in ruins.

The chapel of St Nicholas in Castro was renovated in 1904, after falling into disrepair through lack of use because the church in the village was more accessible to most people. It is now a memorial to Charles I as well as being the war memorial chapel for the Isle of Wight. There are some nice Edwardian woodcarvings on the pews, showing the symbols for the writers of the gospels.

The castle houses a very interesting museum with many of the exhibits concerned with King Charles I, who was imprisoned at Carisbrooke for fourteen months before being taken to his execution. His daughters were also imprisoned there and one, Princess Elizabeth, died there.

Quite a few of the exhibits are of interest to a carver. One is an ivory gaming piece, dating to Norman times, from a game called 'tables', which was similar to backgammon.

This chamber organ was built in 1602 and is still in working order. It shows the arms of the Earl of Montrose and has Flemish inscriptions taken from the bible carved onto it. I don't think that the electrical flex is connected to the instrument!

There are also other carved pieces on show:

As well as this fragment of a medieval saw blade:

While we were visiting Carisbrooke, there was a 'medieval' joust and displays of medieval skills such as falconry and bowmaking. The joust took place on the bowling green, where Charles I played bowls whilst he was imprisoned. It was previously the drill ground for soldiers stationed at the castle and may well have seen jousting in medieval times.

One of the exhibitors was 'James the Bowl', who was making wooden bowls turned on a pole lathe. I had an interesting chat with him about what he was doing.

James told me that a lot of the designs for the equipment that he was using came from an image of a turner making equipment for the Mary Rose, although the image doesn't show a toolrest, which would have been vital. Many early images don't, perhaps because it would obscure the view and confuse the viewer.

Apparently, many kinds of timber were used to make the turned bowls found on the Mary Rose. Bowls have even been found made from oak, which tends to split and can taint food so is not normally used for this purpose. One timber that was not found is willow.

The shapes of the gouges used to cut the bowls have been worked out from the cut marks on found ones. Robin Wood, a well-known pole lathe bowl turner, has done a lot of work on this subject.

The mandrel, which holds the wooden blank to be turned into the bowl, is also not shown on old pictures. James' one has three flattened points, which he explained helps to keep the blank on. He said that other methods were known to have been adopted, Viking finds have had many points stuck into the blank and sometimes a simple round mortice and tenon was used, with a sliver of green wood in the mortice to wedge it in. The mandrel needs to be pretty tough and could be carried between places, so having iron bands on each end of it to prevent splitting would make sense.

It was very interesting to see what bowl turning in medieval and Tudor times was like and how people have filled in the gaps in historical knowledge by practical experience. The jousting was a lot of fun to watch too!

If you would like to see James' blog, it is at:

http://jamesthebowl.blogspot.co.uk

Robin Wood is a very well-known and respected pole lathe bowl turner and his website is at:

http://www.robin-wood.co.uk

This is an interesting overview of historical pole lathe turning:

http://www.turningtools.co.uk/history2/history-turning2.html

Carisbrooke Castle museum has a website here:

http://www.carisbrookecastlemuseum.org.uk