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.
