How To Finish A Hand Carved Spoon
Congratulations now you have a finished spoon made only with hand tools.
How to finish a hand carved spoon. Use it for a touch up on spoons it is a finish that builds up layers fast. All my products have a knife finish because it leaves a nice smooth hand made look. Water absorbs much quicker through the end of the fibers so soak a spoon for a day or two in a plastic bucket shoe-box sized tubs work great any iron will react with the wood.
Oct 1 2017 - Information about how Martin Damen finishes hand carved Oak spoons. Once the paste wax has dried then the surface can be buffed off and shined up. You can use polymerized tung oil if thats whats available and I occasionally.
Once you have the inside roughly carved out use a pencil to draw the shape you want on the side of the spoon to the outer edge and back. Carve till you hit harder wood then put it back into the bucket to soak more the soaking will accelerate as you expose more end grain going deeper down inside the bowl of the spoon. Butcher block olive peanut or vegetable oil.
Next I dry off the excess oil and apply a coat of paste wax. For my standard spoon finishing I cut the tung oil 5050 with a citrus based. It is expensive to get enough to soak the spoons in it.
Most of these are going to be some sort of oil or oil combination usually wax. Push the gouge forward into the wood making cuts towards the center of the bowl. Use a power carver with a rounded gouge to carve out the bowl of the spoon.
Make sure to rub the paste wax deep into the surface. Here we see green woodworking expert Justin Sanford demonstrate traditional spoon carving. Carve away with your carving knife on the side and back.