Wooden Spoon

Laurie's Wood Carving

Artisan Crafted Utensils and Art Pieces

Yes, kitchen and barbecue utensils and decorative art pieces, hand carved and turned. You may even find a something to compliment the dining room table on a special occasion or to adorn the coffee table.

  • Nut bowls
  • Fruit bowls
  • Dough bowls
  • Salad bowls
  • Jewelry bowls and stands
  • Spoons and spatulas
  • Rolling pins
  • Spinning tops
  • Toadstools

Since retiring, I've often asked myself how I ever found time to go to work, back in the day. After a decade I've finally got life organized to free up enough time to seriously pursue the hobby I dreamed of.

I reckon that once you try and make money from a hobby, you've spoiled a good hobby. What do you think? I'm happy to make enough to pay my way at the indoor market and finance a bit of new equipment here and there.

Almost exclusively I harvest fallen timber that would otherwise be burnt or left to rot. Then I mill it with the chainsaw and bandsaw as appropriate and proceed with the creative processes.

A fully food safe timber finish is important to me. You see, we have several food allergies and food chemical intolerances in the family, so I've done the research and produce my own brew of flaxseed oil and beezwax timber finish for my food contact items.

The Artist

G'day!

Laurie McArthur here, from Bega on the Far South Coast of NSW. Dairy country and the home of Bega Cheese.

Real pleased you made it to my Wood Carving website. You'll find artisan crafted spoons and the like, hand carved, sometimes with the assistance of machinery, but all unique creations, hand finished. In addition there are turned bowls, platters, scoops, rolling pins and jewelry stands. Oh, and don't forget the toadstools. Then there are the hand carved and power carved bowls.

There's a thrill in sourcing appropriate native and introduced timbers from the bush or plain, be it the forests or farm land around where I live, the nearby mountain country or the arid regions of outback Australia.

Big logs are broken down with the chain saw before slabbing in the band saw. Spoon blanks are cut out with a combination of coping saw, band saw and scroll saw.

Hand finishing uses the spoke shave, scraper and sand paper. Sometimes the belt sander comes in handy, especially for rounding the circumference of a spoon bowl across the grain and a palm sander comes in handy for difficult timbers.

Bowls are usually hollowed out with a gouge, either using a mallet on tough timbers or by hand power on softer timbers.

Most food contact utensils are finished off using my own brew of beezwax and flaxseed oil.