My wife's birthday is Thursday. We've been married for almost 35 years and we stopped buying each other birthday presents a long time ago. There's simply nothing either of us want or need. However, I got to thinking (dangerous, I know). She likes wooden spoons and while I've made a lot of wooden stuff in 35 years I've never made her any wooden spoons. So, I thought I'd try my hand at it. This is my first attempt be it good, bad or indifferent. I wanted something pretty hefty that would last a long time and could be handed down to my granddaughters. I wanted something very plain that could be used to stir with and I'm pretty pleased with the result.
I started with 3/4inch solid red oak stock and drew two spoons about 11 inches long. I free handed the outline then cut out the stock.
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You can see the raw stock on the left. The rough cut spoon in the middle and the initial shape starting to turn out on the right. The little orange handled knife is the one Tennecedar made and sent me. I used it to whittle a bit and to help make the bowls. (Thank you, sir!)
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I used a rotary sander attached to my drill press to begin the process.
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The bowl begins to take shape.
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Both bowls are roughed out.
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The one on the right has been hand sanded with 120 grit.
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First sanding with 120 grit is complete.
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Finished sanding with 250 grit is done and I cleaned them up by blowing any remaining dust off of them with the compressor.
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A three hours soak in food grade mineral oil.
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The final product. You can see how the mineral oil brings out the red in the oak as well as the grain. If you scroll up a bit and then down you'll see the difference in the wood. They will air dry until Thursday. I know she'll be surprised because she won't be expecting anything. We celebrated her birthday last Saturday with the kids and grand kids so Thursday will be just another day.
Sorry for such a long post but I thought some might like to see the wood take shape. Especially if you have always wanted to do wood working but didn't know where to start. I'm always impressed that inside a simple piece of wood is something wonderful just waiting for someone to make it appear. In this case, a couple of spoons were hiding inside.
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