Spoon Carving in Scotland

I’m teaching loads of courses at the moment (woodworking or scything) which is getting me out and about around the area. Over the bank holiday I went up to Dalbeattie at the request of Gavin Phillips to teach spoon carving at his Shed Therapy centre.
Lots of fun and laughter, particularly as I decided to let the group give names for the different knife techniques I was teaching to make them more memorable. Some of the names were very inventive!

Cecilia came along with her mum who came in to see what we were up to and ended up with a knife in her hand. She’d arrived just as we were learning the ‘tit push’ (more usually ‘chest expander’) cut which is one of the more difficult grasps to learn but she did a fine job with it before heading back outside to the sunshine.

We progressed through axe techniques, straight knife grips and hollowing with the hook tool before we got on to carving spoons on sunday afternoon. There was still enough time for us to talk about sharpening and look at tool edges and the effects of different sharpening methods under the microscope.

It was a glorious weekend and a lovely way to spend it with good company; the scenery on the drive home made me wish I’d brought my running shoes.