Oak

   It has been a while since I posted.  No real good reason, I guess I just needed a break there are now 1,178 published posts on a blog begun January 2011. Over the course of all those months and years many things have changed but one thing has remained constant.  Wood, I love the smell of it, the feel of it and the nearly endless number of possibilities for creation that wood presents.

  The other day while I was cleaning up stray tools in my shop I picked up a piece of wood that had been part of a shipping pallet.  The wood was rough sawn and had been slammed together with big nails to make a skid.  I had a piece about the size of a hard cover novel that was laying under the work bench and when I picked it up I meant to throw it in the burn pile. Something stopped me, the piece of wood was too heavy for its size to be some kind of scrap softwood. 

  The bit of wood turned out to be Oak.  I'm guessing the tree was cut down in the United States somewhere and turned into a skid.  Sad, as it was a really nice bit of wood.

eight inch oak spoon and shallow scoop.

  Both projects were time killers in the evening, and neither really had a fore ordained purpose, but...the wood was just so lovely that burning it would have been a waste.

  Oak is hard enough that these two projects were shaped with power tools, except the bowl of the spoon. * Oak sands beautifully and still maintains the feeling of the gentle ripples in the wood grain.  After shaping and sanding to 600 grit I soaked both pieces with hemp oil, giving it time to soak in before buffing it off.  The finish is slightly golden and silky to touch.  The other thing is my hemp oil is food safe and easy to re-apply down the road.  

cheers ianw

* I have found nothing better for carving a spoon bowl than a hook knife.