How To Make A Wooden Spoon, with Barn the Spoon

Barn the Spoon is a young man who loves to make spoons. He really loves spoon-making, and does it lots.

He learnt much of his wood-ken as a green-woodworking apprentice in Abbotts Wood, where Mike Abbott instructs the great and the keen in all aspects of green-wood-workery.

So Barney is pretty clued up, as this first video will show you.

In fact, he is ridiculously recondite in the art of spoon-making. When unencumbered by the camera, he knocked a beauty up in about 14 minutes, from round log to perfectly smooth eating shovel.

He makes them in a particular Swedish way, whereby he leaves the axe marks on the spoon - "it doesn't need to hide the way it was made" - and he also refuses to sand down his finished spoons - he didn't like the unknown chemicals of sandpaper - aluminium oxide and epoxy, we suppose - being rubbed into his clean and beautiful handiwork.

Right now, Barney Spoon is travelling over Britain. on foot (and bicycle?), and making spoons for all the good people he meets, in exchange for food and shelter.

Being a woodsman, he can provide himself with food and shelter pretty well anyway, but it's nice to be involved with people, and to share the good hospitality that is offered. We know how he feels.

And having an intense love of creating things from green wood, especially spoons, he naturally wants to see his passion spread contagiously amongst the good people of Britain. He is a man with a spoonful mission.

So look out for Barney, on a footpath near you, with a spoon in his hand and a well-informed glint in his eye.

Contact him on: barnthespoon@hotmail.co.uk

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• spoon
• carving
• woodwork
• barney
• spoons
• green wood
• bodger
• woodland
• woods
• sticks
• ivy
• tools
• knife
• axe
• forest

[thecorleyclan06]

carry on spoon

[MrStinoVino]

What kind of wood can you use to make a spoon?

[chas4551]

As the old craftsman used to say to me when I was an apprentice coach builder, "If the manufacturer wanted you to hold the tool 3 inches from the shaft, he'd have fitted it with a 3" handle". You'll have better control and more precision if you hold the axe where it should be held as then it will balanced correctly. (Assumed it's balanced in the first place and not just, "fitted with a shaft".

[bigbarrycook]

barto 1100 you chump! he's made 4 videos....

talks too much but very helpful, you're a very talented man.

[barto11000]

This is an axe safety tutorial, you didn't get anywhere near to making a spoon.

[4micaman]

I call false advertising. That or the "young" man ages very quickly. :)

Nice camp though. Namaste

[thebadjokethatended]

awesome! thanks for a great vid, really helpful.

[dutchpaedo]

Glad to see Barn has been feeding himself well in the forest!

[pedroribeiro2008]

what a load of crap !!!!

[barnthespoon]

London Courses: barnthespoon.blogspot