My Dad recently had a birthday, and as he has suggested that I get back into wood working, I decided to make him a spoon.

When I was younger I really enjoyed wood working and carving. Then kids came along and when they were young I needed to keep an eye on them, so I couldn’t disappear into the garage for hours. And bringing sharp objects into the house was a safety hazard (not to mention that the idea of having to clean up saw dust and wood chips inside unthinkable.) So I turned to more child-watching friendly options for creativity: crochet, jewelry making, and other things that could easily and quickly be put down to figure out why it was suddenly quiet upstairs.

The kids have been in school for many years now, but somehow I didn’t really get back into wood working. Turns out I missed it. Picking out a piece of wood and taking chisel and bandsaw and sander to it to turn it into something functional and beautiful is incredibly satisfying. I haven’t tried spoons before, but I will again! I took progress photos to share:

I cut a piece of applewood and used a fishtail gouge to shape the bowl of the spoon

This is after I used the bandsaw to cut away most of the excess. I wanted a flowing wavy shape to the spoon.

The back of the spoon after some time (and a few belts) on the belt sander.

Front of spoon after using the belt sander and following up with hand sanding.

After sanding down with progressively finer grit sand paper, I wet the spoon with water. The water helps raise the tiny splinters in the wood, and also gives you a good idea of what the final color will be.

After the spoon dried, I sanded again with 320 grit, I used a wood burner to make apple seed designs.

Back of the spoon with wood burned “apple” and my mark.

To finish the spoon I rubbed it with olive oil once each day for three days. I love the swirl of color in the wood on the back of the spoon bowl!