I've been enjoying doing some smaller woodworking projects lately, in contrast to furniture and the like. They go quicker, and seem to be better suited to the sporadic time I've been finding to spend in the shop.
First up was another end-grain cutting board. Here it is glued up, but not sanded or finished.
The biggest differences between this one and the last were the attention I paid to making all the cuts square, as well as the finish I applied. I used a combination of beeswax and walnut oil and have found it much more durable.
I also carved my first spoon!
With reasonable success on the first spoon and an upcoming East Coast trip, I decided to make a couple pairs of salad spoons as house gifts. I cut the blanks out double thickness on the band saw, then split the blanks down the middle. From there, I started making it look like a spoon.
I'd always been frustrated by quotes from sculptors along the lines of: "You just take a block of [whatever] and cut away everything that isn't [whatever you're trying to carve]." But I started to understand that philosophy as I carved these spoons.
I'm sure I'm not really doing this "right." As in, I kinda just use whatever tools seem to get the job done, from chisels and gauges to rasps and files. But in in the end, it looks an awful lot like a spoon...
Here are the two sets.
Most recently, I took some offcuts of the cherry tree that Mike cut down and turned them into a spoon and a spatula as a wedding gift. Congrats, Mark & Lina!
