The photo shows a spoon being carved from beech along with the spoon knife, carvers axe and sloyd knife used to bring it to this point. Knud had carved a number of spoons in the past but said that the use of this spoon knife for forming the bowl felt like an extension of his own hand.
Knud's spoon is a lovely thing as we witness finished form emerging from rough wood.
My spoon carving knives are different from the usual in that the bevel is ground on the inside of the curve, allowing it to be sharpened with a dowel wrapped in sand paper, and the curvature is tighter, allowing it to make very small cuts on the inside of the spoon's bowl shape.
Michael Polyani, in his description of tacit knowledge described how a blind man's stick would at first register in his consciousness within the sensory framework of his hand and mind, but with practice would extend toward sensing in his mind the surface of a his path as well. Tools have both sensory and transformative relationships to the reality in which we live, and the human hand is the connective link.
How I make spoon carving knives with be featured in an upcoming issue of Quercus Magazine, and an article I wrote in remembrance of Bill Coperthwaite will be coming to subscribers in the next issue.
Make, fix and create.
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