Spoon carving first steps reaches 500000.

Thank you all so much for visiting and interacting with this blog at

Spoon carving first steps.

When I started this endeavour, sharing my progress of carving wood with basic tools, I never for one moment thought it would become so popular.

I'd like to thank you all for visiting and I hope the information you found within has helped a little in your own artistic expressions.

Yours.

Jon Mac.

First Ale hen for 2016

Happy New Year !

First off, I'd like to thank all you folk who pop onto Spoon Carving First Steps both here and on my other social media outlets.

I haven't posted for quite a while here, I guess winter has a lot to do with it.

Well, today the sun is shining it's little head off, I was thinking of popping out for a walk, but I saw an opportunity to light up my newest creation.

I have been working on her for quite a while, well, mainly staring at her to be honest, wondering where to go with the decoration.

I made a couple of errors along the way, however, I managed to turn them into design opportunities and everything worked out just fine.

I don't have a set of photos from beginning to end on this Hen, but you'll understand the process is just the same as other hens and kuksa I've carved.

You'll find detailed step by step info earlier in the blog.

This Hen is carved from Apple wood, grown in the small orchard here on the farm.

Usually I make sure I remove the heart wood, but in this instance I took the chance of leaving it in, Apple is pretty tough.

Once again I kept the tool roll small using three simple tools, Axe, Hook knife and my trusty ©MiniMac.

It took a little while to add the feathered detail to the Hen.

I don't need to buy a detail knife for this work.

One can simply adapt the knife with a little leather and tape.

Once the design is finished I rubbed in very dry, very fine coffee grounds.

So, here she is....

She's has a nice coat of Liberon Tung oil which will set over quite a short time giving a good protective natural coat.

She's for sale, so charge up your Pay Pal.

Thank you once more.

Have a great 2016.

Jon Mac.

MaChris workshop visit.

Well that was a busy summer !!!

Sarah and I managed to spend some of our holiday up in Scotland with Chris Grant and Kit.

Chris and Kit looked after us at their lovely home near the Cairngorms, way up on the East side.

I managed to spend time with Chris in his busy workshop and

we also made time for lots of sightseeing in his beautiful country.

Chris took me through the complete process of making one of our MaChris knives from start to finish.

Chris and I also had a look at using a couple of new (to us) steels for our Evo project.

We'll shortly be testing Niolox and Nitrobe 77.

Of course we will still use 52100 for our MaChris and MiniMac lines.

Chris showed me how the knife is shaped and prepared for heat treatment.

I found trying to capture the various processes technically difficult as the light in the workshop is minimal. But I hope I have managed to capture the skill and concentration that Chris exhibits when he is hand crafting one of our MaChris knives.

You can see in the picture below a sequence of steps we take when a design moves from a drawing into a prototype.

We will often carve a wooden model to get an initial feel for the proposed knife design.

The photo below shows the model then a blank shaped and ready for heat treat and the finished product.

Chris employs a multi stage heat treatment for the MaChris knives ensuring a totally stable product with the correct crystal structure.

The steels we use are carefully chosen, many steel types have been discarded during our journey toward the professional MaChris knives now available.

Once the blade is shaped, heat treated and cleaned up Chris applies our trademark using an electro etching stencil. It leaves a clear crisp mark.

Some final hand polishing to get the blade looking just so.

The MiniMac blade being worked on below, received a good polish and was handled with some of Chris's ancient bog oak.

It's being put through it's paces by Patrick McGlinchey.

I've heard through the grapevine he's as pleased as punch with it.

Whether it's a MaChris a MiniMac or Evo, all of the knives from Chris Grant's workshop are hand finished, the handle is shaped by eye and touch.

When you buy a MaChris knife you are buying a hand crafted, carefully constructed, professional knife.

The finished MiniMac.

Did I mention that Chris also crafts the leather sheaths ?

The full tang scales are attached using Loveless bolts and two ton epoxy from WorkshopHeaven.

The MiniMac handles are married to the blades using a hot steel technique plus a spot of Two Ton.

You can see the Loveless bolts shining out on this MaCro.

And this SmaChris kitchen/utility knife.

Talking of marrying handles to blades, Sarah and I tied the knot at Totnes during the summer break.

We had a super day and exchanged rings made by Chris during our visit.

Thank you to all who shared our day and a big thank you for all the messages of congratulations we received over social networks

As you may know, Matthew Platt of WorkshopHeaven will be taking on sales and orders for our MaChris knives.

If you wish to place an order, head on over to this page at 

WORKSHOPHEAVEN

And sign up for his news letter.

He should be stocked up for the new year and he'll let you know when the MaChris knives become available.

Thanks once more.

Jon and Sarah Mac.

Damasteel wedding rings (Chris Grant)

Sarah and I are getting married on the 22 August 2015.

Our great friend Chris Grant made our rings from Vinland Damasteel.

Thank you so much for this great gift Chris.

Well, pretty much everything is in place, we're looking forward to seeing our friends on the day.

Thank you all for following my blog over the years and for your ongoing support and friendship.

We thought you might enjoy the rings, Chris even managed to make a knife from the remaining billet.

Jon Mac and Sarah.

Aug 2015.