Terry Wolff's Wood Carving Information: January 2011

HERE I AM STANDING NEXT TO MY CARVED SPO


USING PINCH DOGS

This is a commission I recently completed for a design firm in LA. Its final destination is a restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada called the Wicket Spoon. The restaurant opened this past month.

BUILDING THE SPOON

It was carved from several pieces of Sugar Pine which grows in northern California and southern Oregon. The spoon measures just over seven feet tall and has a key hole in it. Don't ask me what the key hole is all about because no one seems to know. I finished it with a satin black enamel, There approximately over a dozen coats of paint on the finished spoon.

PERFECT, ALL CLAMPED UP

JUST ANOTHER VIEW

BOTTOM VIEW WITH KEY HOLE

I started with a set of engineering drawings supplied by the client. I took them to a copy shop in Taos and had them print a set of full size prints. This made it easy to get all proportions correct and this was critical with this client as they had all their dimensions to an 1/8th of an inch.

Using a band saw I cut the various pieces to as close to the exact size as possible. This cut down on the amount of carving time required.

SHOWN HERE ON PATTERN

I carved the spoon in sections, glued these sections together and then finished carving them as a unit.

FINALLY CARVED AND SHAPED

THIS SHOWS THE INSERTED MORTISE

One problem with making a large realistic spoon or say something such as a carousel horse is that there are weak spots. Areas where there is a shear point and on this spoon it is where the handle curves down to meet the scoop. A shear point is where the grain is r. Solution, I decided to insert a diagonal mahogany mortise to add strength.

The rest is history. I have provided several photographs to show you some of the steps and how the finished piece actually looked. Enjoy!!!