Spoon Carving with Dave Atkin of Woodwyrm

Woodwyrm Spoons by Dave Atkin

Recently I've been out of my comfort zone but having great fun learning how to carve a spoon with Woodwyrm AKA Dave Atkin.  Dave has been making spoons for several years now.  It all began when his brother showed him how to carve one and he caught the bug. After a few visits to Spoonfest, an annual celebration of spooncarving in Edale, Derbyshire and lots of practice, Dave became quite an expert.  Following lots of interest at York Open Studios 2018, Dave now offers spooncarving taster sessions.  It was at one of these sessions that I had my first go at spooncarving.

More of Dave's lovely spoons on display in his studio in York

First, Dave split a log so I would have a piece of fresh wood to work on...

Dave splits a log

Log ready to start work on

Then using one of Dave's spoons as a template I marked the spoon shape on my piece of wood...

Dave's spoon was used as a template to draw round so I had a shape to work to

Dave demonstrated how to use a couple of different axes and I began to hew out my spoon shape.  Never having used an axe before, I hadn't realised quite how unwieldy I would find it - especially as Dave made it look so easy.

After a bit of axe work my spoon takes shape

Once I had a good shape axed out, Dave showed me how to use a knife to define the shape and make it look more finished...

Dave demonstrates using a knife

I found this part easier to manage than the axe.  Dave stressed that it's very important to take care as the knives are very sharp...

My spoon is definitely becoming more spoon like

A special spooning knife with a curved blade is used for carving out the bowl of the spoon.  With instruction, and some help from Dave, I carved mine out.  And here's my finished spoon which I'm very pleased with...

Once it's dried out in a couple of weeks I can add a bit of oil to it and put it to good use in the kitchen.  (Or I might just display it as my first ever bit of woodcarving!) If you fancy a go too - here are the details...

Thanks for a great afternoon, Dave!