[sonomadon]

It's been a while since I shared a picture of my carving collection, but since I consider it 'finished' I thought I'd share it now. I consider it finished because I need to get a life and do something else with my time. Besides, I'm running out of room on the wall and even my wife is beginning to wonder about my sanity.

I've carved 43 species of swans, including: Black willow, ash, cottonwood, white oak, ailanthus, chestnut, alder, birch, white cedar, osage orange, basswood, maple, yew, koa, red oak, holly, redwood, aspen, pecan, elm, butternut, walnut, hackberry, sumac, myrtle, spruce, red cedar, juniper, sugar pine, sassafrass, poplar, yellow cedar, black locust, douglas fir, sycamore, apple, cherry, hickory, mesquite, cypress, beech, catalpa, and box elder.

I'm not experienced uploading files so I'll supply the url I use for family members: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...73&uid=1630377

[wood-whittler]

man that is alot of spoons,but a very nice collection and very well done.

thanks for sharing

bart

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

whew, now that thats over, you can start on forks LOL

[wade clark]

so, what's your favorite? Sycamore, apple?
Wade

[AlArchie]

Wow, now that's a "Wall of Fame"!

Al

[sonomadon]

I have several favorites: sycamore has beautiful figure; sassafras smelled the best while working on it; mesquite is one of the more unusual woods I found.
I also enjoyed finding out the woods that Native Americans used for bows and arrows, such as yew, Osage orange, and hickory.

Least favorite: juniper! The stuff splits if you look at it wrong. Took three attempts to get it right! The last attempt, I was being so careful to not split, I'm like scraping it instead of actually carving it.

As far as actual carving wood: you still can't beat basswood!

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Don't give up on juniper! lots of different kinds...I have some I brought from colorado that carves great, made a handle for a couple of knives out of it.

[Thor]

Brilliant collection of swan spoons!
I very much like the others you have carved as well.
Thor

[DICK "chipncut" CAIN]

You could feed a lot of people with all of them spoons. Beautiful work.
Dick

[woodcarver55555]

I love them, just great.