New crook knife....

Well, I might not have managed to get to Spoonfest this year, but I did manage to bag myself a new Robin Wood spoon knife. He had made some before and they had sold out very quickly so when he mentioned in a recent post that he would be selling another batch at Spoonfest, I gave Ju instructions to try and get me one. And he did.

It cost £15, which I thought fairly reasoable - in fact the same price as a Dave Budd hook which I know happen to be really good knives - I look forward to seeing how Robin's Sheffield steel knives compare.

I picked it up from Ju's today - it seems ok, albeit a little irregular, but that wont necessarily adversely affect the performance. Julian had also traced around one of Robin's handles (he was selling the blades pre-handled for £30, which seems a bit steep to me, but then I didn't have to put in the time and effort to handle them) so I thought I'd have a go at doing one similar, I think out of cedar, but I'm not entirely sure. I also made my handle just a fraction longer than Robin's in the hope of being able to use the leverage of the longer handle.

It looks pretty good - I'll give it a whirl tomorrow and see how it does.

I was also chatting with Ju yesterday about the use of stop-cuts in spoon making. When I first started making spoons I always used stop-cuts where the handle meets the spoon in order to prevent over-zealous axe work when trimming the handle from over-shooting into the bowl. As my axe work got better and more accurate, however, I stopped. Until, that is, Jarrod Stonedahl's recent carving video which reminded me that it doesn't make me a better carver if I don't use stop-cuts and that it actually makes my carving more safe and efficient if I do, so now I do.

Then I got to thinking, wouldn't a stop-cut help to solve the over-shooting problem I sometimes have when cranking a spoon? So I thought I'd give it a go and see how it worked out.

Two spoon blanks with stop-cuts at the shoulders and across the bowl for the crank.

A side veiw to show the depth of the stop cut.

The finished spoon.

All in all I would say that for the sake of a 30 second cut with my folding saw, it was actually worth the effort and made the profile cuts just that little easier.