[Mike_B]

I have recently discovered the carving of spoons and salad server sets, and having a ton of fun.

BUT I am concerned about cutting myself. Has any one found a decent method of holding a spoon while using a gouge to carve out the bowl of a spoon?

Thanks,
Mike_B

[Ashbys]

Mike,
I thought about how really trying it gets at times using a screw vise especially when you need to make a few cuts then rotate or turn. I am not sure it would work , but years ago I did some leather working and I had a friend that had a saddle tree. he would sit on it and operate the clamp with his foot , pressing down on the petal closed the clamp , which left his two hands free to do the tooling or stitching. Since most bowl spoon work requires a lot of shifting of the work piece, a slightly modified version of that might work well for it .
Outside of that , I think I would consider purchasing an air vise with foot control. Mounted to a work table set the pressure and you would have speed as well as free free hands to rest the piece.
I think MSC has clamps that are at least not extreame in price and should do a good job for spoon work.

Just my opinion

Ash

[BobD]

We just had an article by Roger Schroeder that talked about Dave Stetson's vice...a length of closeline with both ends tied together. Feed the loop through a hole in your workbench, put the carving in the other loop, and press down with your foot. The pressure on the rope will hold it in place...

Does that make sense? Let me dig up a photo...

Bob

[BobD]

Here's the photo:

[mdallensr]

I posted a photo tutorial for carving spoon bowls. I carve all of my spoons with palm tools, on my carving table with a surface of carpet pad. The spoons stay put, held with my left hand and contact with my right hand and the gouge. Carving with full-size, two-handed tools is a different story.

http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.co...00&ppuser=2429

[mdallensr]

I forgot an important step. I carve the inside of the bowl before the outside. It's a lot easier and safer to have the flat bottom of the outside keeping the spoon stable while you do the inside of the bowl. Then flip it over and carve the outside. Try to keep a center-line while you carve, and view the bowl profile often to keep the symmetry. It helps to turn the spoon upside down while viewing the profile. It's like getting a second opinion.

[whitecree]

You need a bent knife. Best thing in the world for carving out the inside of bowls and spoon bowls.

If you just gotta use a gouge, use a palm gouge and hold it in a dagger grip, choking well up on the blade.

[don]

I like to use a round scorp to carve the bowl of the spoon. And definatly do the inside before rounding the outside.

[Dennis Taylor]

Oh, Oh I know the answer to this one!!!..I just watched a guy carve spoons at a local craft show, he was doing a live demo, and he used the rope with the foot trick and it really seemed to hold well, I am in the process of making the hole in my bench top...put a twist in the rope at the top with the blank in it, and carved away....cheap, easy idea...Dennis

[Claude]

I've done several - you can see some in the miscelaneous section of my web site. I cut out the spoon outline with the bandsaw, then clamp the spoon blank to the workbench with a C-clamp on the handle. After carving the inside of the bowl to shape, I turn the blank over, re-clamp it, then carve off the outside of the bowl. The handle can be carved from square to round using knife or chisels.

Once I got my Dremel, I carved out the bowl using a round Kutzall burr with the blank clamped to the bench. I do the rest with 80 grit sandpaper on a drum in my drill press. Once it's shaped, I switch to finer sandpaper grades to get it really smooth.

I've done several in PurpleHeart, a really hard wood. I only did one with the gouge, though. The Dremel is orders of magnitude easier and quicker.

Claude