Spoon carving question

[scarver]

I'm looking at the spoon pictures on this board and comparing them with mine. How do you get the inside of the spoon bowl so smooth? Mine still have rough appearances.

All ideas welcome!

[kitaye]

I spend a lot of time sanding. I start with 80 or 100 grit and work up to 2000 grit. Even then, I sometimes find a rough spot after I stain it.

[jmischel]

A rough spot after staining? Don't you hate it when that happens?

Not that I've ever stained or painted something only to then find a rough spot. Nope. Not me.

*cough*

[Nomad]

I use scrapers on my spoons, both for the bowl and the exterior.

[mdallensr]

Most of my spoon bowl interiors are as-carved. I usually sand the back of the bowl, to show-off the grain of the wood. I posted a tutorial on carving the bowl. If you use the right gouges, you can produce a very smooth surface that needs no sanding. Mike
Spoons - Wood Carving Illustrated Photo Gallery

[mpounders]

I made a ball-shaped sander, using a 1/8" shaft from an old bit epoxied into a wooden ball from the hobby store, that I use in my rotary tool. (search for my pictures of it under the tools forum on this site). It works great and really speeds up the process, but I usually do the finer grits by hand, after wetting to raise the grain of the wood.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

I have only done two spoons so far, I think the bottom line is lots of sanding. I started with 80 then 220 grit and finished with I think 1000, came out smooth.

Dave

[Sharon of the Dell]

I use a scraper and then sand with 80 grit,then 100, 150,220 then use 3m pads.Then I oil with walnut(usually) and sometimes go back and sand some more.

[carver33]

Yep, what everybody else said - a lot of sanding. It does help if you can do the initial sanding with power - either a sanding disk or very fine round burr.