Refining The Spoon

With the desired shape roughly finished, the next step is more about achieving smooth, continuous surfaces rather than working on the shape itself. Card scrapers work great for this as they are versatile and can take very fine shavings around awkward areas where other tools struggle. Use a freshly sharpened scraper to even out areas with flats, dents or torn grain created with the spokeshave or rasp. Listen for the changing sounds and change direction when necessary or apply less force.

Once you finish scraping an area, go over it with 120 grit sandpaper. This will even out the surface more still; remember that even the scraper will produce flats, especially if you apply a lot of pressure. Sanding will also reveal any dents (since they will fill with wood dust), so keep switching between the scraper and sandpaper until you obtain a satisfactory finish.

For the rim of the bowl, use a shallow cut on the spokeshave to put a slight bevel all around the front. This will strengthen the edge and prevent the weak fibres from breaking off. Scrape and sand the rim of the bowl as necessary and finally go over the whole spoon with a finer (240 grit) sheet of sandpaper.