Buckthorn Spoon

[schwert]

First spoon for 2009. Again in green Buckthorn from a blank supplied by Frank Foltz.




Roughed it with my SBT Carver, a custom knife by Rod Garcia, followed by my Del Stubbs hooks, open sweep and sloyds.


Finished in flaxseed oil. I find the Buckthorn grain to make for a very interesting spoon. It has deep iridescent lines and "wrinkles", but is still relatively easy to carve. Frank Foltz is in Minnesota and sells spoon blanks from all sorts of woods that are unavailable to me out here in Seattle. Apparently Buckthorn is an invasive weed on the list for eradication....but it makes for one of my favorite spoon woods.

[tucker1931]

And a fine lookin spoon it is. I'm almost finished my first spoon, a coffee scoop in cherry, will post in the next day or so.
Cliff

[Sharon of the Dell]

I'd have to agree with Cliff,It is a fine looking spoon! The grain is really pretty. Is the flaxseed oil like what you would get at a health food store or something different? And what is a SBT carver? Cliff, I can hardly wait to see your cherry coffee scoop. Hope you're having fun with the wecheer!

[schwert]

Thanks, this Buckthorn really is a great wood to work.

I use food grade flaxseed oil that I buy at Trader Joe's. It is the same as raw linseed oil but without any toxic drying agents. It is slow to cure, but penetrates deeply and has a mild yellow color.

An SBT Carver is a Skookum Bush Tool knife made by Rod Garcia. My favorite larger carving knife.

[CarverFromNoWhere]

Nice spoon Thumbs Up,
I did some research and found out exactly which stuff is Buckthorn and holy Cr@poly do we have a lot of in on our land. It is so thick where we are currently cutting dead ash trees for firewood you cannot see through it I have been mutilating the stuff with my saw just to make a path to walk. I did pick up a couple of larger pieces the stuff doesn't seem to get very big.
Carl

[toycarver]

Nice looking spoons. Does the wood supplier have a website?

[schwert]

Yup, Spoons of Wood is Frank's place. Check out his blanks. I generally just email him with a general list of spoon sizes and let him pick out the wood. Buckthorn is not to miss though. I also follow his spoon finishing technique. His site is a nice resource even if you don't order any blanks.

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[chuckt]

Hey schwert -

Really NICE spoon. Looks beautiful. I love the color & grain variations. I'll have to check his site out. Thanks for posting this.

ChuckT

[Mottles]

Nice work on that spoon, I too love the color and grain of that wood.
Kathy

[Ron T]

Thanks for posting your spoons. Very inspiring.