What a glorious day!

Well, we had absolutely brilliant weather here in Leicester today. I'd intended to get up and go get my hair cut first thing, but when I saw how sunny it was I knew I just had to get out into the garden and do some wood work.

Last year I went to the Charnwood Forest Wood Fair and was so impressed with it. This year I would really like to get a stall there for Ju and me - I can't have an event of that quality on my doorstep and not be a part of it. So, first job for today was to split a section of ash and hew it into two planks that I can later make some kind of spoon shelf/rack from to present my spoons a little more professionally at the festival.

The sun was absolutely beating down on my back and having not actually needed to properly swing my axe for some time, I found it really quite difficult work and my forearm was burning with the effort by the time I'd finished. I won't plane them as, for the wood festival, I want them to look hand-worked so I'll leave the axe marks on. I'll put these away now and come back to them in a week or so once I know exactly what I'm going to do with them.

Then I thought I'd do a spoon so I could christen my newly refurbed 120 (which I should say in way of correction to my previous post has a copper bolster, not brass, and which isn't made from an oak burl that Ju got from a car boot but from a piece of regular oak from his back garden - no wonder it wasn't particularly figured!). I chose a design of spoon that I have used many times before and that is a practical, usable spoon. I made a slight alteration to previous spoons of this design with the double crancked handle, but otherwise it's a fairly simple unornamented spoon. Needs drying and oiling and then into the pile of spoons to show at the wood fair.