Spoon Carving with a Hook Knife

Understanding how a knife most likes to cut wood is key to doing any woodcarving - this is my attempt to help folk see how most efficiently to carve the bowl of a spoon . I trained in spoon carving in Sweden & forge carving tools for a living in the US at pinewoodforge.com. This is my first attempt at YouTube - I plan a couple more shortly.
(The blank I used is basswood for quick demo purposes), birch is what is normally used for eating spoons.
thanks, Del

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• spoon
• carving
• hook
• knife

[FreeSkiMN1]

Where do you buy a hock knife in MN?

[MnDel]

The hook knife in this video is what I produce - I'm a knife maker for woodcarvers. We don't have any retail outlet in MN, but we ship all over the world. Since You Tube doesn't allow links in a reply just do a search for pinewoodforge. Scroll down to the third link, it's our tools, or scroll farther down to find many pages of help to spoon carvers.

Thanks, Del

[Kevinthewiseone]

I was wandering how you would recommend finishing a spoon so that it is food safe, i have heard the linseed oil is one way of doing it but it takes a great deal of time to cure , and i was wandering if there was a quicker way of finishing a spoon.

[MnDel]

The only oil I recommend for eating utensils is flaxseed oil, it hardens inside the wood - however it has various forms.

Hardware store 'linseed oil' can contain toxic hardeners, I never use that.

'Tried and True' polymerized flax seed finishes I trust, and cure quicker.

Flax seed oil is in health food stores, but pricey.

Veterinary grade by the gallon should be trustworthy and less cheaper.

Room temp takes about 30 days, add heat to accelerate.

Remember spontaneous combustion of rags.

Del

[blaay99]

Hey, whats the advantage or disadvantage of a hookknife with edges on both sides of the blade? thx for the answer

[MnDel]

It's typical to also use the back of the hook knife, when doing finer finish cuts, to push the blade forward with either for finger or thumb. The blades I make are fully re-curved, so that's nearly the same as having a double edged knife ( by turning over the tool) with the advantage of always being able to push against the back of the blade.

I contour each section of the blade to give maximum support to the edge and the shaving for the smoothest cut, impossible with a double edge. thanks, Del

[MnDel]

No, Mora is the town in southern Sweden where the huge Frost knife factory is, so a number of knives get called 'Mora Knives'. I hand make these knives in Minnesota USA - having studied in north of Sweden I try hard to make each one as fine as can be made, (pinewoodforge is my website title)

[thornwarbler]

great video.Thanks.

[my2cyl]

I own two hook knives, a left and right (both Del's) and they are the best anyone could expect. It's nice to see good quality craftsmanship and a good video.

[symaklon]

Really helpful thanks

[8palmsofpower]

Thanks for the tip. My crook knife's in the post, can't wait to try it out!

[graiypz]

i have blocks of basswood and theres no way in hell i'll be able to cut against the grain....... hahahaha.