Rob Keeble
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- Location
- GTA Ontario Canada
Contrary to what this might seem this is not a post about spoon carving.
So i was sitting outside with Linda and i spotted a log left over from a fire my son had with his mates on Friday night this past weekend. The thought occurred to me that this birch log might be just the wood i have been itching to get my hands on to make a spoon from.
So off to the garage I go and get my camping axe out (this is a real suspect axe btw) and i head to the basement and get the grinder going and put a fresh edge on it.
Outside again to have a go at getting myself a blank for carving out a spoon
Well I wish i had taken pics of the log but sorry did not. It showed zero signs of any knots which is why i selected it thinking this was a clean piece of birch.
There was a bump on the outside of the bark but very slight and i only noticed it when i had already blanked it once.
Here is the pic of what came out of the small log from the top as the blanks occurred.
First pic is to show bark side
This is the two blanks layed in each other as i had chopped them from the log the lower piece in the pic is the outer piece of the log and as you can see from the pic above there is no sign of knot.
Here is a top view of the two as they were nested unfortunately as said i should have snagged the pic before chopping out a spoon which is what is beginning to take shape in the front heartwood facing blank.
Here you can see the recess in the outer blank there is a spoon in there waiting to be carved
Here is the rear of the second blank from which i am busy carving a spoon, honestly i wish i had not touched this blank now just for the record of this knot.
This is the face of the spoon or the inner blank and the big thing i am on about is this is a knot that if i had not taken the axe to it to see if it would simply pop and let go would have shown the bud (dead and dried) that was pointing towards the heartwood.
Here are a couple of closeups of the spoon (knot center)
With all that said and shown have any of you sawyers or wood experts ever come across a knot that seems to have been kinda like a deformity or i guess an ingrown toenail where it is heading for the center of the tree rather than pushing out to the side to make an exit on the bark side and become a branch.
I am wondering if anyone has sufficient knowledge of trees to know if this might have been the beginning of a burl ?
I am not sure i now want to finish the spoon just wish i had not touched the center/knot as i kinda think its a rare occurrence but heck i dont know perhaps an arborist can say if knots start out on the opposite side of a living tree and manage to push their way across the center pith and out through the opposite side. I would have thought not but heck who am i to say.
So i was sitting outside with Linda and i spotted a log left over from a fire my son had with his mates on Friday night this past weekend. The thought occurred to me that this birch log might be just the wood i have been itching to get my hands on to make a spoon from.
So off to the garage I go and get my camping axe out (this is a real suspect axe btw) and i head to the basement and get the grinder going and put a fresh edge on it.
Outside again to have a go at getting myself a blank for carving out a spoon
Well I wish i had taken pics of the log but sorry did not. It showed zero signs of any knots which is why i selected it thinking this was a clean piece of birch.
There was a bump on the outside of the bark but very slight and i only noticed it when i had already blanked it once.
Here is the pic of what came out of the small log from the top as the blanks occurred.
First pic is to show bark side
This is the two blanks layed in each other as i had chopped them from the log the lower piece in the pic is the outer piece of the log and as you can see from the pic above there is no sign of knot.
Here is a top view of the two as they were nested unfortunately as said i should have snagged the pic before chopping out a spoon which is what is beginning to take shape in the front heartwood facing blank.
Here you can see the recess in the outer blank there is a spoon in there waiting to be carved
Here is the rear of the second blank from which i am busy carving a spoon, honestly i wish i had not touched this blank now just for the record of this knot.
This is the face of the spoon or the inner blank and the big thing i am on about is this is a knot that if i had not taken the axe to it to see if it would simply pop and let go would have shown the bud (dead and dried) that was pointing towards the heartwood.
Here are a couple of closeups of the spoon (knot center)
With all that said and shown have any of you sawyers or wood experts ever come across a knot that seems to have been kinda like a deformity or i guess an ingrown toenail where it is heading for the center of the tree rather than pushing out to the side to make an exit on the bark side and become a branch.
I am wondering if anyone has sufficient knowledge of trees to know if this might have been the beginning of a burl ?
I am not sure i now want to finish the spoon just wish i had not touched the center/knot as i kinda think its a rare occurrence but heck i dont know perhaps an arborist can say if knots start out on the opposite side of a living tree and manage to push their way across the center pith and out through the opposite side. I would have thought not but heck who am i to say.
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