February 23, 2012

Cherry spoon finished!

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012


photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

My little spoon is done! If you click on the photo to enlarge it you will see how perfect the grain of the Flowering Cherry tree branch was for the project. Such a lovely piece of wood. The final carving and finish work is done with the edge of the knife using a scraping motion that goes with the grain direction. Shearing the wood leaves a smoother finish than sanding.

Time to get back to carving practice with pear wood and some medieval designs.

February 21, 2012

Cherry spoon


A miniature spoon made from a freshly cut branch of Flowering Cherry.

Driving along the street yesterday I saw a pile of branches sitting by the road waiting for the yard waste recycling pickup day. The branches are green wood, they were only cut a few days ago.

I have been following some articles on carving full sized spoons. They all say to work the wood when it is freshly cut as it easy to carve then. And so it is....
At this small size there seems to be no danger of splitting while drying. The surface is rapidly drying as the carving is being done.

Most of the work was done with a knife. I only used a gouge to scoop out some of the bowl material. I did the basic carving last night and after air drying all day I did the finish sanding tonight. You can't sand a wet surface without getting a lot of fuzz. I used a diamond coated, ball shaped, burr to help sand inside the bowl.

The Flowering Cherry branch was very fine grained. It does leave some pink color near the bark when peeling it and also some pink by the pith when I split the branch. But most of that fades away as the surface air drys. Any kind of species of fruit tree pruning should work for making a miniature spoon. But the base of the branch needs to large enough in diameter the spoon fist onto one half of the diameter plus some extra as you have to avoid the pithy center.

Time to get out the magnifying lenses and do the final touch up on my spoon. You all know by now that the macro photography reveals all the flaws, tiny things you can't see without high magnification. The transition between handle and spoon is too thick, overall the spoon needs more to be thinner, more delicate looking. Chunky looking miniatures are rarely going to work in a miniature setting other than a child's dollhouse.

Get out your pruning tools and head outdoors!

February 7, 2012

Celtic Heart




Once a month I get together with a few girlfriends to play with miniatures. We take turns hosting the gathering. This month I hosted the group at my workshop. The projects we choose vary, sometimes we work independently other times someone will suggest a project to share. I offered to show them how to do some miniature sized carvings and since Valentines Day is coming up I chose a heart design from a Dover Publishing book of Celtic Designs.


I had a piece of poplar wood that was cut thin and wide enough to fit the design. I have stained my piece to look like old English Oak for no particular reason other than I felt like it. After I was done carving the piece I cut around the outside edges with a jeweler's saw.

I might turn this project into a necklace or maybe I will put a pin on the back of it. I suspect I suspect it will become a random, surprise gift for someone on Feb. 14th. Maybe my favorite barista will be the one to end up with it.

I used Dockyard brand miniature carving tools for this project. They come in sets or as individual pieces. The sizes range from 1.5mm up to a 5mm width. Two are two issue I have with the Dockyard chisels, first is they don't hold a sharp edge for very long and second there are no shallow or medium sweeps available on these U gouges, only a full half circle, what is called a deep sweep, is available. This really limits what you can carve with them unless you grind them down to create a shallower sweep. A better option for much higher quality made miniature sized carving tools is to buy Ashley Iles block cutting gouges. Available in the USA from www.toolsforwoodworking.com.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012


photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012


It is a trick to sharpen a tool that small. The chisels are easy enough to deal with but the gouges used to be a challenge for me. However I just learned a trick that makes it easy. Take a piece of softwood such as pine or basswood and use the gouge to carve a groove into the wood. Each size of gouge gets its own custom groove. Put some honing compound in the groove and use a pull stroke on the gouge to polish the beveled edge at a 20 degree angle. The honing compound quickly brings up a lovely mirror like polished surface and it creates a razor sharp edge. On the side edge of the block turn the chisel over and use the inside curve against the wood to carve a matching shape and use it to burnish the inside edge to remove any burrs left from the honing process.

As you are carving and the carving tools start to feel a bit dull give then a few strokes on the honing block and they will be sharp once again. No need to regrind these tiny tools if you take good care of them.