Any recommended whittling projects?

D

dubs chops

Joined
Apr 29, 2009
Messages
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I am getting into the survival and bushcraft lifestyle and want to do some whittling in my spare time. I was wondering if anyone had any good projects that would be good preparation for things I may need to make in the woods. Or something I could make now to possibly keep for use around the house or in the woods later.
 
The most popular carving subject is probably also the most useful: the spoon. It's the only thing (other than tent stakes) I've ever had to carve in the woods.

I went on a three-day backpacking trip with a load of dehydrated food and no utensils... my spork had been taken out of the pack to be washed and I forgot to put it back in. It's hard to find a quick and easy substitute for a spoon in the woods, so I commenced to carving. I ended up with an ugly but very functional spoon. :)

I'm hoping some of the folks here will post photos of the beautiful spoons they've carved. Some of them would not look out of place on the fanciest dinner table.

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
Spoons and forks are good. Also feather sticks are good and if done right you can make miniature Christmas trees. Festive and good practical practice for fire starters.

I may post up some pics later but my stuff is functional but ugly.
 
Utensils are popular. Spoons, bowls, etc. I think those sort of items are the most likely things you'll have to whittle in the woods, hence why people like to do it for practice

Here's one I did with just a BK-2 (from this thread here). Probably would have been easier with a smaller, thinner scandi, but I wanted to show that you could still do finer tasks with such a 1/4" hunk o' 1095:
P1000838.jpg
 
Other than functional stuff like spoons and bowls you might want to try the old ball in cage and a wood spirit or two.
These are purely decorative, but a good test of skill.
 
Kuskas (wooden cups made by the Samis, etc) are popular over at BCUSA. The one pictured below is from knifebargains.co.uk (I'm not affiliated with them.)

kuska_9963_more.jpg
 
a try stick as shown by Mors Kochanski is really useful for notching practice of all kinds. sorry I don't have a pic or a link...
 
Here is some functional (but ugly) stuff I have carved:

Fork
photo21.jpg

Spoon
iphone122010089.jpg


useless trinkets that are fun to practice:
A heart pendant:
img9962z.jpg

A caged ball:
photo3st.jpg


Here is a spoon I carved today using a large camp knife (for the sake of developing handling skills with it). I also made a lousy video of the process if you are bored.
iphone122010213.jpg


The video is uploading to my YouTube page at the moment if you are interested click here.
 
Spoons are the only thing I've made besides tent stakes. I should practice more to get a good looking spoon.
 
How do you hollow up the bowl of a spoon without a crook knife? I've seen one method that would be okay in an emergency bit ends up looking very ratty.
 
HandofCod said:
How do you hollow up the bowl of a spoon without a crook knife? I've seen one method that would be okay in an emergency bit ends up looking very ratty.
Click to expand...

I did mine with my BK-2. Just made some cuts in there and shaved to the cuts - wash, rinse, repeat. Oh - it's easier if you leave a temporary handle on the far side of the spoon bowl. Just cut that off when you're done with it.

Mine probably looks ratty (scroll up the thread) but I live with that. :D

---

Beckerhead #42
 
start with figure 4 deadfalls and move up to cutlery etc. I like to carve boats out of random deadfall and set them afloat.
 
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