green wood, adze, ax and knife

Here are some carving projects I’ve been working on over the last little while. They’re all from white birch except the large bowl, which is sugar maple.

The first photo is of a shrink box – I took a whole birch log, turned it round on my springpole lathe (it was crazy the way that large piece of wood sailed around) and then hollowed it out (drill first, then use carving gouges). Before it dried I took some birch lumber and cut a bottom that fitted loosely. Set it in and allow it to dry, no glue needed to hold the bottom. The top is made from lumber.

Then there are two mid-size bowls together. I made them as a kind of demonstration for my friends to show the different bowl shapes you get out of a log depending on whether you hollow from the pith-side or the bark-side of the tree (they are made from two halves of the same log). The one on the left has a much cooler swooshy shape, but it would hold a lot less candy or salad or whatever than the other one.

Then a small bowl whose shape I like, a carved spoon and a large maple salad bowl.

-- Jeremy, in the Acadian forests