70-Year-Old Woodcarving Master Crafts Her Last Spoon

Well, I gotta go get a wedge I guess. Yeah, great. Okay, plan B. I don't know. Too lazy to go get my chickadees. I think I hear the nuthatches laughing at me. Okay, there it is. I think we lost something really essential in our culture when we moved away from bladed tools to machinery. We lost something of exactness and clarity in movement right straight from our own bodies. So I'm glad I get to do it because, I mean, the time it's taken me today, I probably could have driven to a box store and bought a bandsaw for $2,000 but it wouldn't be nearly as good and then I'd have to take the bandsaw to the dump eventually. A hand-carved item or a handmade item of quality isn't something that will bring so much joy to your life and I hope someday we get back to doing these things but also wanting them and enjoying them and appreciating them. We saw the tree come down that's now a gone tree so the best thing I can do to honor that tree is to make something really beautiful and really useful out of it and that's what I always endeavor to do. I've always appreciated the sculptural quality of a good spoon and the you know you're going to have that thing in your hand and so will your grandchild if you're lucky or if she's lucky or he's lucky so in a way it seems to me to be a perfect way to make sculpture and make something that you can get the soup out of the pot at the same time. Okay I think that's about as far as I can go right now with it this green. This wet this new makes it soft and the finishing that has to happen which will probably amount to twice as much time as I've already spent will need to happen when when it's a bit drier pretty much and so I'm trying to reserve some some meat here so that I can still put it in the vice so I can finish this when it's a little drier so I'm not going to do any more here because otherwise this will get too thin and I won't be able to put it in here and keep it in here and I may break it it's got a long way to go but that's a it is a spoon I would say that it's getting to be a spoon hopefully a beautiful spoon so here's um here's a finished spoon of the similar style a few years old same wood same exact process this one hopefully will resemble this one when it's done you see that one thing I've done in both of these is to go in from the sapwood the light colored wood closest to the bark I've gone through that into the heartwood and that gives you this nice ring and that's what I did again you can do it the opposite way too and I've made pairs of spoons that one was one way and one was the other but there's a lot of handwork sitting and carefully refining this form and then I sanded this I've sanded this so you can see the the spine that I like to do and the hook that I like to do my signature that I like to do this is probably perhaps the 500th spoon maybe this is 501 so I'm going to put it in a plastic bag let it stay moist and then I'll slowly finish it and um and it'll be a good cousin of this spoon here so greenwood that's what we just did we went and cut down a cherry tree which didn't want to come down and we we got a piece from it and split it open and um it's got a lot of moisture in it and um and that's what makes the carving so so clear so efficient and um so relatively easy to do if I'd gone to the lumber yard and gotten a piece of cherry I wouldn't have I wouldn't have enjoyed it that's for sure so there you go so you can see the tool has a lot to do with the form and the process has a lot to do it's all in in order and it's all symmetrical and and it's pretty much I'd done what I could do in every in every position for the moment so probably the handle will um drop down here and arc come there and then I'll make the hook and and I'll have to go over the bowl again but that's pretty much the way it'll be it only it'll be smooth you know I mean over the years I've just I've worked in this direction and I've decided after making many kinds of spoons that this is my ultimate shape and I'll probably if I ever make spoons again which I honestly don't know if I will I just noticed that I have much less hand strength than the last time I made a spoon so I don't know but I have worked on this shape really since the beginning and I'm very pleased with it all the details like the you know I've sanded the spoon but there I've left the fine carving marks right there and also here on the inside of the the hook so it's been an evolution of 51 years I guess I could say so wonderful to do well this spoon will shrink I mean I mean in terms of I will carve it down it'll um the bowl and everything will be smaller by the time it's finished because I want to get some curve into it and and clearly I want to refine the handle a lot but there's still quite a bit of material here but for today that's it and um we'll see if we make some more there's a weird one here where's that hatchet she wouldn't care it's you do have a it's just not the hay you want right sandy okay be back all right this essay is called paper scissors rock give me real materials simple tools just enough of a tool to meet me halfway but no further I intend to remain in the role of generating force the arbiter of speed direction delicacy and style I love a good pencil a good carbon steel paring knife a hand forged axe simple tools well kept become your friends they are companionate I've got an excellent Dutch hoe I've used in the garden for years I believe it knows the feel of my hand just as I know the heft length of handle and touch of its blade to the soil I spend hundreds of hours with this elegant beauty in my hands each summer by now you can imagine that we are on very intimate terms the same goes for my father's pitchfork whose familiarity to me goes back half a century just as I could always tell which cow I was milking if blindfolded I would recognize this pitchfork in a lineup of a hundred it's the same in the kitchen where my preferences are for old the old French corkscrew with a scissor action the newer French pepper mill with a little hopper lid which flips open and the little table mounted nutmeg grater and these things are works of art beautifully designed a pleasure to work with I wouldn't be able to say that for your typical hardware store articles today there's virtually nothing new on the market that I want to buy you can tap your maple trees with a battery operated drill if you like I'll stick with my wide sweep split chuck brace with the rosewood handles and the pewter ferrules which feels like a dance partner rather than a weapon it may take a minute longer per hole but it requires no battery recharging or replacing and it goes as fast or as slow as I go myself jobs of quiet craftsmanship which fill my day are extremely satisfying creating a way of living working that becomes one thing I can honestly say that I never want to rush the job often I want to prolong it while I do not talk to my tool friends we understand each other perfectly the tools I choose are simple enough to become extensions of my hands facilitating my desires and my dreams frustration and aggravation make no incursions into the world of a hand tool craftsman and the skills acquired cooperating with an old ball-peen hammer and a rivet leave confidence in your hands when the job is done