Spoons Tonight

Recently its been a bit difficult to get round to doing any wood working due to college work. But today although being at college I have had just enough time to carve up some spoons out of some sycamore. the centre one is fully complete just waiting to be oiled and the left and right ones just need to dry and have the final cuts applied.

Although I did have some difficulty with my carving knife blunting even after I had sharpened it. after half an hour of tinkering finally realised that it wasn't the edge blunting, the edge was actually rolling over and just needed some intensive honing. Am now getting into the habit of honing my carving knife after every use just make sure it stays in good condition.

having done the spoons today i've remembered how much fun they are to do and now want to just do spoons for the rest of the week! what can I say, its addictive.

Are Traditional Crafts A Curent Interest

Traditional crafts have been part of our culture since the Dark Age’s and before but is it important in today’s society; does society care enough about its heritage?

I believe the answer is yes........or a least progressive yes. Recently there has been a rise in the publicity of certain crafts within British society. a few days ago the BBC published an article about some of the last craftsmen in the country who are fighting to save the trades

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8586172.stm

also the guardians John Henley has also created a disappearing acts series looking at a select few traditional crafts that are part of Britain’s cultural heritage. This series is on-going and gives a good account of each craft (though if some what short).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/series/disappearing-acts

Last year the telegraph also published an article on Britain’s last master cooper Alastair Simms. this article explained that when he joined there hundreds of coopers practising their trade across Britain but due to shortage in materials and rise in use of metal barrels that there is only one last master in England. A sad fact when coopering is a trade that dates back to Britain’s roman roots.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/4108266/Englands-only-master-cooper-predicts-demise-of-barrel-making.html

What I also want to talk about is a crafts person known as George Lailey. George Lailey was the last professional bowl turner in Britain from an unbroken chain of bowl turners before him spanning to over 4000 years. However George died in 1958 breaking the chain which in turn saw the extinction of bowl turning in Britain. If nothing is done to preserve traditional crafts then we face another generation of George Lailey’s and we stand to lose more than just bowls.