I have one of my 'intro to green wood spoon carving' workshops on tomorrow, so here's a look at how I prepare greenwood spoon blanks.
I start by riving out all of the billets I'm going to need, in this case 5 for my students, 1 for me, and a couple spares. I'm not in a rush so I take my time axing out each one. I've cut out the time I spent drawing the spoon designs on, as you couldn't see it well and watching someone draw a spoon shape doesn't teach you anything really.
When I axe out blanks, I follow a set process, for the most part. First I square the billet, if necessary, then cut a relief cut or stop-cut for the crank, axe the crank, draw the spoon, saw stop-cuts at the shoulders of the bowl, split away the waste, axe to the lines. I then axe away the waste on the underside of the bowl leaving the shape mostly roughed in for later. Then I do the back of the bowl hanging off the side of the block. Any facets in the spoon I will establish now, and I'll thin out the handle pretty much to final shape.
Hope you enjoy this long form video with minimal cuts and edits. I've left it like this so you can see exactly how long it took me to do the various steps. I would say this is a relaxed pace for me, going just as fast as I can without making any mistakes.
I used a gransfors bruk large carving axe and a silky saws gomboy in this video. The froe was made for me by John Steel @fecforge on instagram.
If you'd like to source some of my blanks for your carving, contact me via email or check the greenwood blanks page on my website for more info.
www.littlebearsloyd.com.au