Spoon Carving Supplies (14)
(See Home page for Availability)
Sweden has a very rich tradition of spoon carving. I studied this during a winter in the north of Sweden in 1989 and 1994. I was privileged to spend many good weeks with Ville Sundquist, the much respected carver/craftsman and author who lived in northern Sweden, and many others he introduced me to. Upon returning home I realized that the wonderful types of tools they use are not available here in North America. So, as a tool maker I decided to fill the need for these types of tools.
These knives we completely hand make, from start to finish, and every possible aspect of them I have thought through - from handle and blade shape, to the steel, and the heat treating methods. They, of course, have uses beyond spoon carving. The edges come perfectly sharp and the blades highly polished - so that the knife glides through the wood, and so that future sharpening is a breeze. The back of the blades are rounded and polished for comfort when pushing with a finger.
The handles are from our 40 year collection of beautiful hardwoods. I was a woodturner in the 70's and 80's and couldn't bear to throw out the beautiful 'cut-offs'. So each week I now pull out another box of random pieces and make that week's handles out of it and also out of local figured ash, oak and maple we cure ourselves Thus we cannot easily specify certain species, only that they are delightful. Since carvers are also wood lovers I enjoy thinking about each person as I make the pairings of woods in filling each order.
Right or Left Handed? Generally a right handed person uses a right handed hook or sweep. The tool is gripped in the fingers and pulled / squeezed closed. A few folk however, prefer to push the tool away using the opposite hands' thumb, this would mean a right handed person would use a left handed hook.
The steel: I have chosen 01 high carbon alloy tool steel from Austria. It costs about twice what normal high carbon steel costs, it's the very best that I can buy. The bevel (most are 25°) and the hardness RC 62 make these tools suitable for carving any wood from pine to maple.
I do all the heat treating myself with highly accurate digital control salt baths for the austenizing, marquenching and tempering baths. This gives perfect control of not only the final hardness but other equally critical metallurgical qualities as well.
