Spoon Carving Green Wood Source

[John Goodin]

Spoon carving seems like a enjoyable evening hobby. I have read up on it a little and it seems green wood is preferable to lumberyard material. Unfortunately I do not have a source. Locally, it is mainly juniper, which we call cedar, a couple species of oaks. There are a few cedar elms and on the east side some pecan. I only have live oak on the property. Is there a source online for good spoon wood? If so, which species are good for a beginner and which are good for creating an attractive finished product.

[John K Jordan]

Spoon carving seems like a enjoyable evening hobby. I have read up on it a little and it seems green wood is preferable to lumberyard material. Unfortunately I do not have a source. Locally, it is mainly juniper, which we call cedar, a couple species of oaks. There are a few cedar elms and on the east side some pecan. I only have live oak on the property. Is there a source online for good spoon wood? If so, which species are good for a beginner and which are good for creating an attractive finished product.

Road trip a bit north? You could fill a car with green hardwoods from firewood piles, I like diffuse porous woods with fine grain like cherry, dogwood, bradford pear, persimmon, apple, maple.
But do you always carve green? I haven't don't too many spoons but when I do I prefer dry wood, usually exotics. Olive is nice.
But if you're carving all by hand some of the harder woods might not be as useful, especially when dry. I carve with hand tools, powered recip carver, and rotary carvers.

These are cocobolo and pink flame (no longer obtainable). Coffee scoops with a little hook on the end to fit the little finger of the right hand nicely. I gave one away and have been using the other daily for almost 15 years.

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Hey, a hint if you carve coffee or other measuring spoons: I filled my calibrated plastic coffee scoop with silly putty to get the volume, then carved the hollow in the spoon until the silly putty just fit.

[Rick Dettinger]

Some spoon carvers report that soaking the wood in a bucket of water for about 6 days makes it more like green wood. I have tried it with some Alder to good effect. Generally, when you carve green wood it is best to rough the spoon out, and finish it when seasoned. It will take a nicer finish after a couple of weeks. It will dry fast in the shape of a spoon. Some put the green spoon in a bag of sawdust to control the drying.

73,
Rick

[Tony Corey]

John G,

Using green wood for hand carving spoons is much easier than using dry wood. Very sharp knives are required....of course. The woods John J listed are great for spoon carving.

As far as wood sources, check with local tree services. Branches can be used for carving spoons.

One great resource for spoon carving information and technique is Peter Follansbee's blog. Peter is an amazing, 100% hand tool woodworker and spoon carving is a "hobby". I took a spoon carving class taught by him a few years ago.

This link to his blog is a search for "spoon carving": https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/page/2/?s=spoon+carving

His posts have lots of details about his technique.

TonyC

[Richard Coers]

Any mesquite around you? A big advantage of green wood is that you can choose a crooked branch or crotch section for a ladle and the grain flows beautifully around the bend. Check with some of those famous barbecue joints and see if they use anything except oak. Ask some arborists or landscapers around you for some ornamentals that they are hired to take out.

[Jim Koepke]

It might be a good idea to do some research on wood safety for food handling.

jtk