A cautionary tale. It has been nearly one month now. A new scar has formed. Using hand tools such as knives and axes carries an inherent risk. Be careful. Stay focused. Be aware what you are doing. WARNING: some of the following images my not be suitable for the squeamish It was a Thursday and…

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…

I recently finished this interesting scoop. The grain of this spalted Beech wood was mesmerizing as I axed, shaped, hollowed and refined its form. Below a few images to take you through parts of the process. This one found a new home already and I am glad to know that it will be up to…

I like a using a sexy looking axe. I like looking at one too. Most of us use them to split firewood. Splitting mauls, regular forest axes and hatchets are the most common and generally used heavy metals. Of course there are specialized axed used by those who need such tools however most of us…

I enjoy carving larger utensils, such as kookstiks, servers and ladles. Much smaller in size than those are my scoops and I find myself carving them from time to time. I few days ago axed out a couple of scoop blanks from a upper arm diameter round of beech wood. Yes I am into the…

Hewing bird shapes with my axe is satisfying fun. Working and exploring these simple forms is an ongoing study, evolving with each bird that takes shape in my making hands. One chip at a time. Axercise. It started out as innocent as trying to use a chunk of waste wood from some green wood spoon…

This morning I just had to pop open one of the recently foraged beech lengths. The spalting in the cut ends looked pretty and my curiosity at its highest level, so … I cut 19cm lengths, split it with my froe, cleaned out the pith section and drew outlines for a couple of scoopy spoons….