Green Carving Wood-Yaupon

Back in the middle of November I was clearing some of the brush and small trees from around the property. I took down the largest yaupon holly tree, Ilex vomitoria, I have yet seen. It was 20 feet tall and had a diameter at the base of 5 inches. I decided to cut it into 2 foot sections and seal the ends with latex paint for future carving material.  The reason for sealing it is the habit of all holly trees to check and crack like crazy if they dry too fast. Its such a dense and beautiful wood and I don't want to waste an inch.
Yaupon isn't scarce here. I can count 100 of his cousins in 10 minutes within 20 feet of the stump. I have a few other holly trees in line for harvesting and I believe they are American holly, Ilex opaca. None of them are as large as the yaupon tree I took down, most being at the most 3 inches in diameter. These, too, will get the same treatment as the yaupon. I let the yaupon log air out and dry a little in the shade for about a month before I cut it and sealed it. I then moved the wood to our aviary to keep it out of the weather and give it a cool, shady place to dry. This wood is used for turning, inlay and carving. I plan to make a lot of spoons and utensils with some of this wood. A search for green wood carving has show quite a few pages and a lot of info on the subject. Looks promising. Here's a link that mentions yaupon holly in a wood working forum. Its the last post at the bottom: http://lumberjocks.com/topics/8709

Here are some photo's.

2 foot sections fresh cut & ready to treat

3 1/4" should be plenty big enough to get some good carvings. This wood will yield a lot of spoons and kitchen utensils as well as other good things!

Nice clean wood with a lot of potential.

I weighed each one to see how much they will loose after a month or so. It will probably take a few years to completely season and dry. I intend to sell them green as well as seasoned.

Another nice log.

Even the small stuff has some potential.

Sealed and ready to be put up.

In the aviary drying and waiting for sales.

Camp Spoons

Here is a short tutorial on my "camping spoons". They are made from a fallen limb of western red cedar. This is a fairly hard and dense wood. The end product is very sturdy and good looking. First part is roughing out the pattern. I do this with a small saw and hand plane. Then I carve the bowl section out. My reason for this is two fold: there is room for error and the handle on such a small spoon would probably break off while gouging out the bowl.

Here's a photo of the rough blank and the tools I use. Clockwise: spoon blank, small hand plane, Nicholson rasp/chisel with modified handle,Warren small bent gouge, X-Acto large router blade in #2 handle and small hacksaw with wood cutting blade.

This is a photo of the blank with the beginning of the cut where the handle meets the bowl.

Here's a side shot of the blank. From here on its simply stock removal and final shaping and sanding. The finished spoons are shown in my last post.


Feel free to email me with any questions.

micron327@yahoo.com

Latest news

I've been very busy these last two months with church and work so I haven't been able to post anything but fear not!! I will be posting new stuff very soon.
Here are a pair of pictures of my camp spoons. The one on the right in the top photo and right in the bottom photo is my wife's. These were carved from Western Red Cedar. The finish is olive oil. Beautiful wood! I'll do a short tutorial on they're construction soon. A few other things will be a review of the "pocket chainsaw" and a few other things I've recently purchased. Thanks to all for their comments and patience.