Well, it may not be the the most fantastic and original of carving projects, but it is useful and gives you a great opportunity to develop familiarity with several different knife/carving techniques and MOST importantly practice knife safety. Not to mention that obtaining the raw materials (aka: a piece of wood) is a great excuse to go for a walk in the forest ;)
So fist things first: I had to find a good piece of wood. I brought along a small folding saw to help make the task a little easier.
After an enjoyable 1/2 hour hike down some local trails I found a spot where someone had cut down a few fir trees that had grown to close to the trail. I hope fir has no toxic qualities that'll ruin the taste of food! I found a nice straight piece of wood with few branches and set to work cutting off a piece about 12" long. A lot of people seem to insist on picking a piece of wood with a natural curve to it. Given the amount of material that is removed from the piece of wood when carving I don't think that this is strictly necessary. The curvature can be built into the spoon with a little judicious carving. Admittedly this probably leads to a weaker spoon, but frankly I've never had a problem or noticed a difference!
After harvesting the piece of wood I set about squaring (or more precisely rectangling!) it off before I moved on to the actual carving.
A nice fixed blade knife really helps out here. Used with a baton you can really slice off significant portions of wood! Once I had obtained a long, rectilinear shape I was able to set about actually carving the spoon. Sitting on large felled tree, soaking up the warm March sunshine I enjoyed the task as the afternoon quickly went by. I didn't look at my watch since I was just enjoying the time, but I probably spent about two hours there working out the rough shape. A SHARP knife really helps out here. I like to keep mine sharp using a whetstone and a leather strop with some abrasive buffing compound. You can learn pretty much all you need to know about basic knife sharpening from Mors Kochanski's book "Northern Buschcraft". Old Jimbo has a few articles on his site detailing "Cheap" sharpening techniques that work quite well also. Most importantly though make sure you always carve AWAY from yourself (with the exception of a draw stroke...but that's another subject!). Everyone always talks about how a sharp knife is a safe knife. Well, I'm here to tell you from personal experience that NO knife is safe if you use it mindlessly. Even when you think your body parts are well out of range they may not be... and you could end up awfully sorry you didn't go slower and put more thought into it! Learn as much as you can about how to handle a knife safely! It only takes a second to cut yourself very badly.
The spoon I had in mind was more of a large cooking spoon than something that would be used as part of a personal camp cutlery set. The nice thing about carving this way is that it is all instinctual. There are no set plans or designs, you just do what feels natural. And sometimes you have to make adaptations to suit the grain of the wood. In the end you have something truly unique. So after a couple of hours of carving away I ended up with the rough shape.
I was quite happy with what I had so far, and given that it was getting on in the day I decided to head home. I've since worked on the spoon a little more, rounding out the bowl, sliming the shaft and just generally getting really satisfied with it. I'll post a few pictures soon. Now I just have to get a hook knife to carve out the interior of the bowl, sand the whole thing smooth, and apply a finish of walnut oil. I'll post an update with the finished item as soon as it's done!
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