Finisher wanted

Finish me, Supplanter, finish me!

A cottage industry for families

Those who read this blog (all five of you) know that I like to make things.  You should also know that nothing is more important than living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and raising our children to believe and live it.  So I loved these words that I heard today.  This is from a talk that Boyd K. Packer, an apostle, gave in April 1995:

The ministry of the prophets and apostles leads them ever and always to the home and the family. That shield of faith is not produced in a factory but at home in a cottage industry.

The ultimate purpose of all we teach is to unite parents and children in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they are happy at home, sealed in an eternal marriage, linked to their generations, and assured of exaltation in the presence of our Heavenly Father.

Lest parents and children be “tossed to and fro,” and misled by “cunning craftiness” of men who “lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14), our Father’s plan requires that, like the generation of life itself, the shield of faith is to be made and fitted in the family. No two can be exactly alike. Each must be handcrafted to individual specifications.

The plan designed by the Father contemplates that man and woman, husband and wife, working together, fit each child individually with a shield of faith made to buckle on so firmly that it can neither be pulled off nor penetrated by those fiery darts.

It takes the steady strength of a father to hammer out the metal of it and the tender hands of a mother to polish and fit it on. Sometimes one parent is left to do it alone. It is difficult, but it can be done.

In the Church we can teach about the materials from which a shield of faith is made: reverence, courage, chastity, repentance, forgiveness, compassion. In church we can learn how to assemble and fit them together. But the actual making of and fitting on of the shield of faith belongs in the family circle. Otherwise it may loosen and come off in a crisis.

The prophets and Apostles know full well that the perilous times Paul prophesied for the last days are now upon us: “Men [are] lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection” (see 2 Tim. 3:1–7).

Knowing it would be so, the Lord warned that “inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes, … that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, … the sin be upon the heads of the parents.

“For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion. …

“And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord” (D&C 68:25–28).

This shield of faith is not manufactured on an assembly line, only handmade in a cottage industry. Therefore our leaders press members to understand that what is most worth doing must be done at home. Some still do not see that too many out-of-home activities, however well intended, leave too little time to make and fit on the shield of faith at home.

Now it's time to stop reading and continue hammering and shaping some shields.

Raw materials in the wild.

Well, this is in the wild of my front yard. A moose came this morning and helped himself to the bark of this birch tree. All the footprints in the snow there are from him. The area of stripped bark is about seven feet tall. I am pretty sure this tree will die now. I will take it down pretty soon and have a spoon making party. There are lots of crooks and bends in this tree, which will hopefully yield some interesting spoons.

Galician eating spoon

I tried copying a spoon I saw on Robin Wood's blog, which he copied from spoons seen in a museum in Galicia. I knocked this one out of poplar from the home improvement store, because that is what I had on hand. I really like the form of this spoon.

Psalm 133

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

The Perfect Spoons? a test.

You may recall that I posted about making the "perfect" cooking spoon.  I was inspired by a post from Robin Wood, who describes the perfect cooking spoon thus:

The prefect cooking spoon is neither rounded for flat across the end, it is a gentle curve and cut at an angle either right of left handed. This allows you to sweep around the base of the pan efficiently. The end should be robust enough to scrape scrambled eggs as they begin to thicken but thin enough to easily cut into food when serving.

Narrow spoons are great for bechamel sauce or other liquids where they won't splash and also for removing the last few beans from the base of a tin. Broader spoons are better for serving. It is just possible to make a spoon that cooks well and also serves well, this is great as again it saves washing 2 spoons.

So, I made two spoons based on his description and picture.  Here they are:

Nice, huh?  The pictures don't really do them justice. 


Now for the real question:  Are they really the perfect cooking spoons?

Task 1:  sweep around the base of the pan efficiently.

This is an easy test to perform.  I used this spoon to stir this pot of soup as it cooked.

It swept around the base of the pan very nicely.  I really like the flat curve of the top of the spoon's head for that.  Very nice.  So, this criterion is met.  (It is also decent for serving the soup, which was delicious.)

Task 2:  scrape scrambled eggs as they begin to thicken.

So, I cooked a scrambled egg with one of the spoons. 

It did an okay job of scraping the egg as it began to thicken.  But it would have been a lot easier to use a spatula.  This spoons are thicker and rounder than spatulas.  Even though the top of this spoon is flatter than most spoons, it is still a spoon.  The second criterion is kind of met.  You can use it to scrape a scrambled egg, but you may be wishing for a spatula instead.

Task 3:  Easily cut food when serving.

For this one, I just cut what I had handy - a quesadilla that I just made. 

It cut it just fine, but again, a spatula would have been handier.  These spoons are plenty strong and sharp for cutting, but it takes some rocking back and forth because of the curve.  So I guess this criterion is met.

The verdict: I really like my "perfect" cooking spoons, but they aren't as all-purpose as they could be.  If they are going to meet all three of Robin Wood's criteria, I need to redesign them a little.  I think I will try to make one that looks exactly like one of them in his picture on his blog.  Then I can test that one.

A ladle from the back yard

Laughter asked for pictures of the scoop that was pictured in the cedar utensil holder that I posted a few days ago.  So I took some pictures.  We can't figure out how to get good pictures out of our camera, so I will substitute quantity for quality.

This little ladle was made from a limb with a smaller branch coming off of it.  It came from the Arizona Sycamore in our back yard.  It was loads of fun to make.  You can see the blemishes in the wood.  Those don't bother me too much.  What bothers me more is the way the wood does not stay smooth after it gets wet and how it feels like it has never been oiled even though I oiled it thoroughly many times.  But, as I complained to Laughter about the wood, he reminded me that it isn't maple.  And I think that sums it up.  Sycamore is pretty decent wood, but it isn't maple.  Not as stable, not as smooth, not as good for kitchen utensils.

Another Christmas photo

The pictures below show all the utensils I made for my wife for Christmas (and in the weeks before Christmas).  The wooden holder is what the kids made for her for Christmas.  It is made of aromatic cedar.

 

"Perfect" spoons update

Here are the next two steps of the perfect cooking spoons.  After I rough-shape it with the disc sander, I like to very quickly go over my spoons with my electric hand sander with 120 grit paper.  Now, you may be thinking, "Why is he sanding it before the shaping is done?  Doesn't he still need to do the knife work?  And why would he start with 120 grit?"  Excellent questions.  The answer is that I am not actually sanding it yet.  I like to give it a once-over with the electric sander at this point because it takes the rough edges off and thus exposes all of the weirdness in the piece.  Once I take off the edges this way, it is a lot easier to see where I need to remove lots of material and where I need to smooth a little or curve a little or straighten a little.  It speeds up the finishing work considerably.
So, here are some pictures of the bowls sanded down with 80 grit paper and the outsides sanded a little with the electric sander and 120 grit. 

Now I am ready to mark them up with a pencil and go at them with my x-acto knives and more 80 grit sandpaper.

An unlikely cooking spoon

These have become the most used cooking spoons in the kitchen. I say it is unlikely, because they were made for the sole purpose of reaching the last bit of peanut butter or miracle whip in the bottom of the jar, without soiling hands in the process. And, they are not spoons. But, they are thin and light and plentiful. It turns out they are really good for stirring sauces, and the point is perfect for reaching into corners of saucepans while the heat is on, and scraping it all out when it is done. They are not any good at serving, although we have tried (it keeps portions small).
These are also easy projects, as you may imagine. Some of these are made of cherry, and I made some others of maple, but most are made from 1/4 inch thick poplar straight from the home store.

the perfect cooking spoon?

I have thought a lot about the perfect shape for a cooking spoon.  So, imagine my delight when I was reading Robin Wood's blog and came upon his post about the perfect cooking spoon.  He says that it "is neither rounded for flat across the end, it is a gentle curve and cut at an angle either right of left handed. This allows you to sweep around the base of the pan efficiently. The end should be robust enough to scrape scrambled eggs as they begin to thicken but thin enough to easily cut into food when serving."  Here is his picture of some of them:

I decided to try it.  This morning I went out and cut out some spoons with his description and picture in mind.  Here they are after being cut out on the scroll saw and then shaped a bit on the disc sander.

After that I gouged out the bowls of the spoons.  Lesson learned from that: gouge the bowls before shaping the back of the bowl.  This is the first time I have shaped the back and handle before gouging out the bowl.  It made it a LOT harder to use my mallet, because the piece wouldn't sit still very nicely.  So it will also be the last time I do it in that order.
Here are the gouged bowls.

I'll post a picture of them when they're done.  And then we will see how perfect they are.

More wooden utensils from Christmas

Here is what I made for my little sister.

Here you have three views of the same thing.  On the left, we have a butter spreader made of bloodwood.  Very pretty.  Bloodwood is very hard and makes pink sawdust.  Next we have another walnut spoon.  Walnut is kind of splintery and needs a TON of sanding.  The third item is a maple spatula.  It is hard to see from the picture how thin I made it.  I wanted it to be thin enough to use as a pancake flipper but still be strong enough to last for decades.  The last item is a walnut butter spreader.

Now, what you can't see in the pictures is how beautiful the bloodwood is.  It polishes to a nice shiny deep red.  The main problem is that it likes to burn up saw blades on the scrollsaw.

one of my favorite new spoons

I have been making a lot of spoons lately.  I got a lot of old maple at my local used building supply store, and maple makes good spoons.  Here is one of my favorite new ones.

I know, it's not terribly exciting to look at.  It's slightly shorter than most spoons - I had a scrap that was an inch shorter than my other spoons.  I didn't make a pattern for it.  I just sort of scribbled on the wood and then cut it out.  That's why the handle is slightly off center, and that's part of its charm.  I just like the soft curves of it.  It's not a gorgeous supermodel spoon.  It's a nice-looking friendly spoon.  From the bottom picture you can see how I cut the top of the bowl of the spoon down a little so it isn't just flat the whole way.  I learned that from Wille Sundqvist and his son Jogge.  Not that this spoon compares at all with what they make, but it is nicer than having a continuous flat surface.

A new spoon (or two)

So, the other day I found a very interesting-looking spoon on the internet.   Here are the pictures of it:

An unusual shape, and I'm not sure about the utility of it, with the low sides that reduce the bowl's volume, but it looks way cool.  So I decided to try it.

Here is what I made:

You can see that the bowl of my spoon does not have sides quite as low as the idea spoon.  I haven't used it yet, but it is so pretty to look at.

Here is my second version of it.  It is more practical than the first version because the bowl is wider and thicker and doesn't dip down on the sides.

I will post something later about the handle of this one.

Wooden Spoons and other utensils from Christmas 2012!

Now that everyone has gotten their Christmas presents, I can post pictures of what I made for people.  Today I am posting pictures of what I made for my sister-in-law.  Here are two different angles.  There are two butter knives, one made of maple and the other of walnut.  Then there is a maple stirrer.  Laughter gave me one a couple years back and we love using it for stirring soup and mixing batter.  It is a very useful tool.  Then, of course, is the main event - the walnut spoon.  That baby is beautiful.  You can see some if its beauty in the pictures, but my camera doesn't do it justice.  It has a nice deep bowl, a slightly tapered handle...  It is a joy to hold.  At least I think so.  I will have to find out how my sister-in-law likes them after she has used them for a few months.