Looking through my archive I found this image. It is one of my favourite spoons, ever, though, if I were to make another I think I’d carve the stem a little differently. The single heart spoon I posted back in March was developed from this design, although if you compare them you’ll find lots of changes made along the way. I particularly like the flow of the endless knot and the reduction in size of the hearts from bottom to top.
This little distraction occupied much of my spare time from the end of November to late January, and now it has been delivered I can post about it. The lovespoon was completely hand-carved, using a coping-saw to rough it out, then whittled with a knife and a very small shallow gouge; a tiny spoon-bent gouge was used to cut through the links(the heart is completely free to move around but the intertwining knot-work stops it from falling out). The only other tool used was a medium spoon-bent gouge for the bowl. I hate sanding and put it off until there is no alternative – the tool marks were smoothed down by scraping with the knife-edge held vertically – any remaining marks were smoothed off with a 400-grit abrasive mesh. Ironically, the wood was almost too smooth and the paraffin-wax finish needed warming up gently to make it more sticky as it just slipped off the wood in some places.
Whew, now that the series of posts on the HW rifle-stock is concluded I can show a little of the other work that has been underway.
60th Anniversary celebration lovespoon with elements significant to the couple- dragon, celtic knotwork, lily of the valley, heart, book, and ball-in-cage.
meanings – dragon – strength and protection, regimental badge (he was a soldier)
celtic knot – eternity/love without end
lily of the valley – her wedding flowers/ flowers also mean affection, also though the photo does not show it, there are two stems for two children and the flowers each represent a grandchild
heart -love
book – she was a teacher
ball-in-cage – love held safe
spoon bowl – to love and look after ( the tradition is believed to refer to the wife as the one who feeds the family)
This lovespoon has been a very enjoyable challenge, and as I like to do, incorporates some elements that push me just a little. In this case, the Lily of the Valley (the bell-shaped flowers between the heart and the disc) was a tricky little carving since I have a bit of a thing about rotary power tools – I hate them, and will not use them, in fact I don’t actually own one – when mine packed up I couldn’t be bothered to replace it. It can be tempting to use the power tool as a short-cut which in fact it adds time and effort, the rotary power tool has a specific job to do but even I will acknowledge that for engraving and drilling they really do excel. However, as soon as you move up in scale from etching and engraving, I believe chisels/gouges/knives to be superior in almost every way but for this job I am not sure whether rotary power might have been the better choice. Still, carving such fine work with gouges, drills and coping saw was a lot of fun.
