Since mid May I have carved only scoops.

During the past two and a half months I worked through and experienced an evolution in shape, design and how I carve these utensils. At the moment I believe that I have arrived at a bowl shape that feels good, a design that I enjoy carving and lines that please my senses and eye. It feels satisfying.

As I do not carve full time, it took me a while to find and go with a flow that seems to work well and is fairly fluid. I now make these scoops in pairs. Ok, I did start out like that too but tried to have four on the go at once. That brings with it more pressures and the likelihood of one or the other blanks drying out to quickly, being nearly forgotten in the chip box and generally too much work to do at one time for my liking.

Two on the go is a good and very doable short list. I split from the bagged rounds and each split billet will yield two blanks. I axe out two blanks a session and move on to hollow them in succession, not always on the same day but relatively close together. I do this to ensure uniform drying as I carve them both.

Certainly there are those scoops that do not tick all of the boxes in the overall satisfaction area, however they all function well and no two are exactly alike. That’s a good thing.

I am lucky that our summer has been a rather wet one to date and that my wood stash has not been in any danger of drying out. The bagged rounds and split billets have a perfect moisture level which makes for good carving even in this hard drying beech wood. It is another reason I am doing so many of these scoops before the consistency of the wood changes.

Beech used to be a wood I did not enjoy carving because it is a relatively hard wood even when fresh. It dries beautifully and is a very durable species well suited for spoons etc. In the course of the past year plus we have become better friends and work better together. I still stay away from dry beech although applying finishing cuts to dried utensils now is not as challenging as it once was. Sharp blades is key.

Now I am waiting for one of those hot sunny summer days when I will take the lot of dry scoops outside, give them an oil treatment and let the sun cure them with light and heat. That should let the spalted grain patterning pop and show off their unique look. Market ready is the plan … whether the market will happen in the current pandemic scenario is still up in the air but I am hopeful.

Go carve something.