Spoons and Maori Pendandts

[bigEd_H]

I carved a couple more Welsh/Maori spoons (a bit larger this time) one out of walnut again (I love working with walnut) and one out of aromatic cedar (it's nice to carve except for the splintering). They both turned out sort of nice. I also carved two Maori friendship pendants, one from walnut and one from oak.

Comments are welcome.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

They look great Ed, I love the style ! Which was harder to carve, wallnut or oak ?

Dave

[bigEd_H]

Thanks for the comment, Dave. Hmmm... which is harder... I'd have to say walnut, but as hard as it is, I love working with it. The Oak is tough, too, but not quite so much. The cedar was an interesting experience. It likes to splinter if you look at it wrong. It's neat to carve because of the smell, though.

After I was finished with the spoons yesterday, my hands were worn out.

Ed

[Ron T]

Hi Ed,

Nice work on the spoons and pendants. The wood looks real nice, too.

[bigEd_H]

Thanks, Ron. If my hands could take it, I'd carve walnut all the time.

Ed

[Tom Ellis]

Nice looking work Ed, you have a very nice design for those spoons. Watch out for the Cedar. I have come with an alergy to it from working on Native American style flutes. Even just smelling it seems to get me now. The Walnut always looks so nice when finished.

Nice job, Tom

[bigEd_H]

Thanks, Tom. These spoons are fun to do. I only have a small amount of cedar and I probably won't carve much else out of it. It carves well if you carve across grain, but if you are in line with the grain it splinters real bad. I'm going to get me a good respirator for when I do any sanding or power carving. I have some particulate face masks, but they work only so good. So far I haven't needed to use them much.

Ed

[jmischel]

Nice work, Ed. I like those pendants. I carved one from basswood just to get an idea of what's involved. There is that largish scrap of walnut in the garage . . .

Interesting that you found walnut harder to work with than oak. The oak I have here is much harder to work than that walnut I picked up. But then, the walnut is kiln dried and the oak I picked up in the yard.

[carver33]

Ed, Nice looking work. I'm with Ed, I find Oak harder to work than Walnut because of the grain.

I know what you mean about a favorite wood. I really like Cherry, but after doing a piece in it, Basswood is a nice break - it almost feels like working in butter.

[bigEd_H]

Thanks, Jim and Bill, I appreciate the comments. All the wood I have is kiln dried... that is except for the chunks of ponderosa pine limbs I have from the neighbor's tree falling over my fence.

The walnut was a 3/4" slab about a foot long by about a foot wide. I have some bigger chunks that I'll have to cut down. The oak was just a bit thicker and only about 4"x6". I got a 20lb box of hardwood scrap from Rockler a year ago and that's what it all came from. How they thought aromatic cedar was a hardwood is beyond me.

I know what you mean about how basswood seems like butter after carving in oak or walnut. It feels almost like you're cheating carving in basswood.

Ed