Sunday, January 2, 2011

Kitchen Invasives

When I opened my birthday present from Rog a few days ago, the box contained just a few hunks of wood, one roughly carved into a spoonlike shape.  Huh?

Well, the real present turned out to be a bandsaw--a tool I have been teasing Rog I needed since before we were married (My friend Debbie cleverly told her sweetheart she wouldn't get married until she owned a bandsaw--thus, she has had her bandsaw for over 25 years!) The pieces of wood were from some of the invasive buckthorn we chopped down last fall -buckthorn has a very  pretty red wood.

This afternoon, Rog and I played with the bandsaw, and created three wacky buckthorn utensils: Rog's long-handled bowl scraper, the completed very-long-handled spoon, and my jam-spreader/cupcake-froster with a scooped blade and finger holds.

We learned a lot about carving spoons from buckthorn from this experiment - not the least of which is if your spoon breaks, you can still make it into a different utensil! If we get more skilled and considerably faster at carving spoons and utensils, perhaps we will try to sell them at the Farmers Market next summer.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

This is so beautiful! I need a bandsaw! oh wait,i have so many saws out there, i might already have one. : )

Peggy Hanson said...

Beautiful utensils for a first try. My husband Frank Wright has been a professional spoon maker for almost 20 years now and he also works with buckthorn among many other woods. Sue - this is another reason for you and Roger to visit us in Lanesboro - you can check out Frank's spoon shop.

gz said...

that is a beautiful wood.
I like the idea of custom made spoons!

Becky said...

Wow!! Beauty and function all at the same time! It might not be long before you are asking those buckthorns to grow faster! :) Love them!!

katiegirl said...

How cool! What a great gift! It's also great you can make beautiful utensils from the awful buckthorn!

Sandra Sarlinga said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ann said...

Those are beautiful! I would buy them. I was thinking that you should sell them before I got to the part where you suggested it. I love your blog...stumbled on it quick accidentally over a year ago. I have been checking your progress silently!