Hi all,

Just thought I would add a bit of info about the proposed spoon project. For those who haven’t seen the newsletter, as a way to increase cross state communication and participation I proposed a small project competition.

“… to facilitate some friendly regional competitions.  The first one I am proposing will be a spoon.  All members are encouraged to provide an entry.  You can be as elaborate or simple as you would like the only requirement is that you begin with a piece of material roughly ¼” by 8”.  Further details will be available on the website along with a gallery for posting your entries and voting.” (from the newsletter)

Since we have had a couple request for further details I offer the following.  My original intent was to allow members to use any stock they had on hand but that left it too wide open so I picked a thickness and a length, 1/4″ x 8″.  You can use any width you would like but probably 1/4″ to 1″ would be best just depends on how large a spoon you would like to make and how detailed or fun.

I did try my hand at a spoon at our past meeting but I didn’t have any 1/4″ stock so I used a piece of 3/8″ square.  Since it was a bit bigger I stretched it to give me a nice curvy handle.  This is not my entry, I’ll do one within the guidelines but I wanted to give it a try and as a beginning smith it was fun to explore all the challenges such a seemingly simple project presented, of course as a newer smith every project seems fraught with fun and interesting … learning experiences.

Anyway,  this is my first attempt at a spoon made of something besides a horseshoe nail.  The left photos are after forging and the right shows it after I started filing to give it a pretty finish and hide some mistakes.  It isn’t quite what was in my head when I started but it was enjoyable to play with.

Please jump on the forum to let me know if you’ve tried one or any other thoughts on it!

Thanks!