/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.584990]

Hello, /diy/.
I just started carving using only a knife and some birch sticks I had and I made a spoon.
However, I can't carve out the bowl due to the shitty quality of the knife and my lack of experience.
Help?

[Anonymous No.584991]

[Anonymous No.584993]

[Anonymous No.584994]

You'd need a spoon gouge, or a tool with a similar curved cutting edge afaik.

[Anonymous No.585051]

>>584990
You need a hook knife, not a gouge.

>>584994
A spoon gouge is called that because it is shaped like a spoon, not because you use it to make spoons. A hook knife is the proper tool.

[Anonymous No.585053]

>>584990
Big tip, use far smaller strokes when slicing away the wood. The strokes should be about 1cm long at max and there should be many many of them to get it whittled down. It will help prevent those places where a big piece pulled up and left a trench-like hole that longer strokes can cause. Always start the strokes at the end and work up, never try to stroke a cut towards a section that hasn't been cut down already.

When you get a hook knife and start using it to make the bowl, always use it across the grain instead of along with the grain. That is opposite what you do when carving the body of the spoon.

[Anonymous No.585087]

YOu could also try burning out the bowl, if you have something metallic that would fit in there pretty well.

[Anonymous No.585089]

>>585051
I actually did what OP should have done and googled "carving a hollow into a wooden spoon", and most of the returned results mentioned spoon gouges. YMMV I guess.

[Anonymous No.585090]

>>584994
would it be possible to just use a very sharp knife and make cuts?

[Anonymous No.585095]

>>585090
I guess you could make slices like pic related, then knock out the middle sections, then make more cuts in the next layer, then knock them out, then deeper cuts etc, but unless you cut each end where the filler needs to be removed toy risk pulling the grain, plus it will be a bitch to get a consistent concave.

I'd suggest the right tool for the job.

[Anonymous No.585116]

>>585090
You can create shallow concavities like this without a specialist tool, but if you want a decent result you need a blade with a pronounced curve on the edge to be able to create the right profile. So you won't be carving exactly but paring / scraping; all of these techniques are part of whittling.

I pare all the time for dishing out something just a little bit, although it is generally a lot easier with something like a hook knife.

[Anonymous No.585216]

>>585087
Wouldn't that mark the wood?

[Anonymous No.585232]

What's wrong with using the knife to scrape out one layer at a time?

[Anonymous No.585348]

>>585089
The name is why you get those results and many people are confused by them. The angle of the handle for a "spoon gouge" is incorrect for carving the bowl of the spoon due to the angle of the wood grain.

>>585090
You'll be in to a tremendous amount of sanding or glass scrapping.

>>585216
It can be done and is done for many types of more primitive wood working objects. The trick is to not let the coals burn in too far. Then you can scrape out the burned areas and merely sand or scrap a layer of wood off until there's no more burn marks. It'd be faster at least. The problems with that is the heat can seriously affect the wood and may crack, check, or split it and ruin the piece. You'd need the proper moisture content in the wood to be successful. You'd also need a good bit of practice to get it right eventually, if you don't luck out.

>>585232
Nothing really. The problem is the curvature of the bowl. If it only needs to be very shallow then there's less of a need for a very curved hook knife. You could even use a curved edge of a piece of broken glass to carve it out if you want. Glass scrapping is mostly a lost art anyway in common garage wood carving due to the invention of sandpaper. But, glass scraping will give you a richer looking product since the pours of the wood are not packed with wood dust.

[Anonymous No.585354]

Inna woods /k/ommando here. When I make a bowl or spoon I usually get a fire going and put a bit of coals on the area I want to carve out. It dries the wood out, blackens it, and makes it easier to carve out.

Takes a while though and you have to replace the coals.

Or, you can buy something like this :

http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/mora-162-double-edged-spoonbowl-carving-knife-50-p.asp

[Anonymous No.585388]

>>585354
>Or, you can buy something like this :
>mora

This is /diy/, not /out/. lol

Everyone needs a hook knife.

[Anonymous No.585688]

>>584990
This is how.

[Anonymous No.585692]

>>585688
Result.

It has markings, however.

[Anonymous No.585697]

>40,000 years of civilisation, cant go and buy a ready
>made spoon from a store

[Anonymous No.585707]

>>585697
>buy ready things
>/diy/
Go choke on your bought spoon.

[Anonymous No.585734]

>>585697
This is how we'll lose the spoon race against the Chinese.

[Anonymous No.585735]

>>585697
>40,000 years of civilization, can't make basic utensils

[Anonymous No.585791]

>>585735
>Get 2 sticks
>Basic utensil of China
Perhaps we have already lost to the Chinese.

[Anonymous No.585814]

>>585791
>get 2 sticks
Instructions not clear enough. I got my dick caught in the ceiling fan.

[Anonymous No.585822]

>>585791
>eating soup with chopsticks
and where will your soup bowl come from?

[Anonymous No.585823]

[Anonymous No.585850]

Buy a good one if you want to make a nice spoon. You should look into how a spoon handle should be curved downwards too, otherwise it won´t be nice to eat with.

These are the best spoon knives in Sweden.
http://www.djarv.se/djarvenglish/skedknivar.asp

[Anonymous No.585871]

>carving spoon
>not forging one
Oh, woodworkers you are adorable.

[Anonymous No.585908]

>>584990
I had the same problem
I gave up and turned it into a fork.

[Anonymous No.585910]

>>585871
>burns our spoons to make charcoal for his forge so he can make forged metal spoons

M-M-MONSTER!

[Anonymous No.585948]

>>585692

the markings give it character

[Anonymous No.586381]

>>585095
I was watching this wood working video, and there was someone doing inlays with a knife.
firs thay made the vertical cuts then they made the horizontal cuts. Just using a sharp knife. though they where using a softer wood, making cuts at an angle. so idk

[Anonymous No.586401]

>>585348
>The name is why you get those results and many people are confused by them.

This, and, if you think about it, pushing the gouge into the wood to form a bowl isn't going to give you the control you need (and is more than likely going to slip and cause an injury, instead)

[Anonymous No.586407]

>>585388

Wow that's a great picture. Any more on diy tools for woodworking? What would I need to get started?

[Anonymous No.586455]

>>586407
>Any more on diy tools for woodworking?

Making drill bits and augers for wood is really simple and fun. You really need to think about the things you want to make for woodworking then look up the best tools to do those projects with. After that, you can think about DIYing those tools.

[Anonymous No.586779]

>>586455

That's probably more metalworking then I'd be able to do. Cool pictures nevertheless - thank you very much!

[Anonymous No.586810]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_vboIz99U4M

[Anonymous No.586813]

>>586455
>Making drill bits and augers for wood is really simple and fun. You really need to think about the things you want to make for woodworking then look up the best tools to do those projects with. After that, you can think about DIYing those tools.
Good general philosophy on DIY tools.

>identify need
>source materials
>research method or figure it out for yourself
>do it
>profit

[Anonymous No.586935]

>>586810
>all those long strokes with the regular knife

I cringed.

I like that small hook knife though.

[Anonymous No.586940]

>>586813
3rd and 2nd step should be switched but yeah