One of the hardest things I do is stacking firewood and preparing kindling. This is not borne out of any arduous effort required, but of NEEDING to examine each and every piece to see what possibilities it may contain! That delays the whole process of preparing for next winter, but I can’t help it – even my 6 year old grandson says ” is there a spoon in here, Oupa?” There usually is…….

This blog is a celebration to some of those firewood or kindling spoons.

This is the most recent one finished.

This came from a small offcut after finishing a repair of a garden bench. So much of my material comes from kindling offcuts. That is the only way I have got my hands on some Walnut.

All the kindling is usually so dry and that makes the carving very different. It’s much harder physically but then on the good side the sanding is easier.

This scoop recently finished is in very, very dry Cherry – really gives a satin finish.

Sometimes even a very plain piece of Maple can be quite pleasing when given a little elaboration as on the end of the handle.

Even a small bit of practical embellishment can add to an already pleasing grain. This is spalted Ambrosia Maple – an offcut again destined for the kindling pile. Fortunately – other possibilities were spotted!

Finally another scoop from the same piece of spalted Ambrosia Maple kindling.

So in a nutshell I guess what I am saying is don’t burn that piece until you have really assessed its possibilities of creating something useful, and perhaps even beautiful too. One thing that will always be true is, unlike so much around – it will be unique!