A friend of mine in Croatia showed me a photograph of a spoon she had carved. She has no specialist bushcraft tools so used her imagination and came up with a splendid idea, she used some broken glass.
This got me thinking, how do I carve a spoon bowl without a hook knife. I know you can use a hot coal and a straw to carefully burn a depression in a bowl, but this often ends up with cracking if not done extremely carefully. Then I remembered the friction fire lighting blog I posted a little while ago.
I carved out a rough spoon shape and applied fire lighting logic...
Here is the rough spoon blank. I marked the centre of the bowl and with my knife I cut some semi circles....
Cut across the grain and angle the knife tip at about 30 degrees...
Scratch out the waste wood and you are left with a nice depression in which to seat your drill...
Using the same technique as in the fire lighting, bow until you see some coal forming around the bottom of the drill...
With this technique you will have to regularly remove the coal dust.
You can help the process along by niching the depression from time to time...
After some time you will end up with a nice uniform bowl shape...
With your knife, carve the spoon shape you desire...
To finish your spoon scrape it carefully until smooth all over...
And then oil...
ENJOY...J
