Utensils
Figure 1. The first spoon.
I’ve made a handful of kitchen utensils from a board of olive wood I got from the Woodshop. Olive is a beautiful wood, it has very small, diffuse pores that are easy to cover with any finish. It is heavy and very hard, which is good for utensils. It is fairly unstable, but that doesn’t really matter for utensils, as warping doesn’t make any real difference.
Figure 2. The olive wood board.
When working with olive, you can immediately smell the pleasant, fruity aroma, similar to olive oil. It is known as a sensitizer, so it’s best to avoid long periods of working only on olive wood, exposure to the dust over time can sensitize you to the wood and start causing allergic reactions. Fortunately, that is not a concern for finished pieces.
I start by drawing an outline of the utensil on a rectangular piece of wood. I try to align it such that the grain follows the handle as much as possible, while avoiding any obvious cracks.
Figure 3. Drawing the outline for a spatula.
With spoons, I carve the bowl first before anything else, since that’s easier in dry wood while the piece is easy to clamp. I carve the bowl using the two gauges I own: a large 1½ inch with a gentler sweep, and a ¾ inch half-circle. Both have bevels on the outside.
After that, I use a curved scraper to smooth the gouge marks out, and finish with sandpapers up to 600 grit.
Figure 4. After sawing the handle shape.
I remove as much material as possible using saws, and then do the shaping using chisels and a spokeshave. Final smoothing is done using a card scraper and sandpapers.
I converted a few of the pieces into bowls instead of spoons due to cracks or cavities in the wood that would be unsuitable for a spoon, but would be fine in a bowl for dry goods. They are done using the same tools and methods, just without a handle.
Figure 5. Small olive wood bowls.
Thank you for reading.