We had a most enjoyable weekend. Our spooncarving group were just a great fun bunch of people and we all had a fun time.

We all went through the various processes of learning to use an axe and knife safely but efficiently and then how to get the best designs out of various bits of wood.


Nicola cooks home made soup and puts on a simple spread of food which always seems to go down well.


Sadly I didn’t take many photos of peoples work and there were some really good spoons. Everyone made nice spoons and I hope learnt enough skills to be able to carry on the hobby at home. I was particularly pleased with this spoon partly because I can not do this type of decorative carving myself. I could only show Shankar the basics of how it was done with some examples made by my Dutch friend Jan Harm and he went away and decorated his spoon with beautiful carving. He is an eye surgeon though so is used to using sharp tools for fine detail.


When I bought the wood for the course I had noticed it was realy very fast grown but it was only when we started working it that I ralised just how fast grown. In fact it is as quickly grown as any tree I have ever seen, the 8″ diameter logs had grown in 7 years. The only other time I have seen that growth rate has been on cricket bat willows which are specially grown on good ground with lots of space around them. This log came from the pole growing on an old pollard willow.

Author Robin Wood

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