Nic Westermann

Last years Bowlgathering I found the biggest lump of sycamore I could find and started at it with one or two of @nic_westermann ‘s big bowl adze. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the energy to finish it at the event so took it home. When I got home, I continued with the renovation of our house and unfortunately the bowl was left on the ground outside the studio that we use for Spoon club. Recently, I called in to see my mat @tommygun.85 who had the other half of the lump of wood to see he had finished his and it was so impressive I was inspired to get on and finish mine. Unfortunately, it dried so much the axe practically bounced off it. Not wanting to give up on all of the effort I had already made I decided to try and get it on the new/old lathe that I recently acquired. The difficulty was how to hold this gnarly bit of wood on the lathe that had already been hollowed out which has an uneven rim. I put a shout out to my Wood turning friends for suggestions many of whom offered advice for which I am very grateful. However, I ended up simply screwing a thin flexible piece of MDF and gluing it to the rim of the bowl, then screwed that piece of MDF to some 18 mm ply which then in turn was screwed to a large face plate. You can see my efforts at this process on previous posts. Thankfully, it stayed on the lathe while I shaped and finished the outside of the bowl. The result is a bowl with a heavily tooled inside with a complete contrast of the smooth finish on the outside. It’s a bit big to use at home so I will bring this with me to Greenwood events where catering and the need of a large bowl to share which hopefully everybody can then see and enjoy.

I have always done the final sharpening by hand on my double edged twca cams, it's sometimes very time consuming but the result, as you can see has been worth it. I've made some new tooling that has reduced the time It will take to get to this point considerably. Batches I'm working on at the moment are destined for Spoontown. . #sloyd #slöjd #woodworking #greenwoodworking #woodcarving

I know I have shown these a few times , and this one isn't even fully sharpened, but it is to my eyes the best one yet. None of the tiny details I'm chasing at the moment affect how the tool cuts the wood but the clean, controlled form pleases me, yet however far I go it's only ever part way. There are now aspects I see that I want to address in the next batch. - All this is achieved by taking more time, I'm getting slower at these tools not quicker! When I first started I would have railed against this, thinking its all about production speed, and yes it does matter but its nice to have a product line where this isnt a concern. I was speaking to Jerry Atkinson the clogmaker, maybe a decade ago and he mentioned that now he finished his clogs much slower as he now took more care over the details. I found this to be a lightbulb moment, so liberating, as I didn't get into craft to end up working in a factory and as stressful and difficult as these blades are to make I find them immensely rewarding. - However as these designs get crisper I'm now left with a recent batch that I now view as (aesthetic) seconds. Im off to the Midland Woodworking Show this Fri/ Sat and will have them with me alongside all my usual tools, most of which you can make a few cuts with, so if you want to beat the waitlist, and buy at a reduced price or just try one out and then come over. - - #sloyd #woodworking #slöjd #slowcraft #spoonknife #midlandswoodworkingshow

Double edge Twca Cams for sale very soon! Edit: All sold now. I've made enough of these that I will be listing a batch on my website in the next couple of days, when I have a firm timeline I will let you know. I have 2 of the 50mm and 8 of the 40mm- these are my favorite by far, all my recent carving have been done with the DETC 40 - This is going to be an infrequent event and wont affect my usual monthly sales on the website from the waitlist, customers who have reached the ordering stage have been able to order these as a stock item for the last couple of months, and will be able to in the future. - These are a tool I've been developing over the last 7 years and one I'm very proud of. Feedback has been inspiring and although production is not easy, I'm getting into the rhythm of making them and am able to keep up with, and in this case slightly exceed current demand from the site, hence this sale. They are a specialised tool but excel for deep hollow forms especially if they are undercut. So intuitive to use I've not picked up a single edged version in over a year! - - #sloyd #slöjd #greenwoodworking #woodcraft #woodworking

The first image is us 5 and 1/2 years ago! We visited a festival that Karel Hekrle put on in Czechia, it was a rural location and there was no power on site so I ground the blade I had forged on this amazing grinder, I bought a similar one to restore a year later and have finally just about finished it, more on that in a later post. - Swipe to see how much Jude has grown! he's back visiting as it's his 20th Birthday, he forged a few leaves in the workshop today. He's studying fine art in Camberwell, London and making the most of that fabulous setting and opportunity.

Hazel pot completed, no cracks but very difficult to carve, hard and soft spots, knives lost edges very quickly. Lots of tanin as well, this reacted with my steel impregnated fingers, making a clean finish almost impossible. Experimented with different ways to preserve the rays, ebonising worked, but not sure I like the gray tones, however if I went for a deeper black the rays started to disappear. - - #sloyd #slöjd #greenwoodworking #woodcarving #woodworking #heritagecraft #slowcraft

A more ambitious silver patch, I cracked this pot wiping congealed oil away after baking it, 250c might improve the look of cherry but not its strength. Riveting it on was rather nerve wracking, but all worked as planned. - - - - - - #sloyd#slöjd#greenwoodworking#woodcraft#woodworking #kintsugi

Another proof of concept pot, carved and dried in a day, slight cracking around the pith of one wing, probably because I left that side slightly too thick. - Cured Urushiol finish, a slightly different approach this time but 6 coats applied and cured over a weekend. - - - - #sloyd #slöjd #woodworking #woodcarving #urushi

I'm not very patient, and as much as I like Urushi finishes the extended drying times for traditional applications has always put me off. So, buoyed by my success at forced drying green wood I looked up a few scientific papers on some less conventional curing processes for urushiol, ordered some supplies and had a go on my little pot. 3 layers, fully cured ( as far as I can tell anyway ) in 36 hrs. I could finish this pot from a green branch in 48hrs. - It's hard to know if I'm just not that allergic to urushiol, or if my precautions and processes worked, admittedly it is very small so the amount used is tiny. My first job out of school was working in a lab culturing bacteria and I largely mimicked the sterile technique I learnt there. - The finish isn't perfect but I like it, it looks like a conker and the harder surface is much more pleasant to hold than a softer oiled one that drags in your hand. I expect to improve on it with the next attempt with a few refinements. - #woodcarving #urushi #sloyd #slöjd #greenwoodworking #urushiol

I made this ambitious little pot at the wonderful weekend Lee Burton just put on. Carved from recently felled cherry branch wood. Orientated so the pith ran through both ends, the general consensus was that it would crack, but I was hopeful. This started off as a have a go session with my new double edged twca cam, but it stayed close enough to the form I envisaged that I continued with it. . Finished to an even wall thickness, 2-3 mm it was flexing in my hands on the finishing cuts. Inevitably my hands weren't clean enough and the outside took on a blacksmiths patina, I boiled the pot partly in the vain hope it would clean up and partly to see it it would reduce stresses in the wood and aid drying as the sap was replaced by water. . It survived the boiling, but wasn't really any cleaner, so I gave it a thin coat of oil to slow drying and took it home that evening. . Next morning I microwaved it in short pulses until it stopped steaming. It survived this, but was still grubby. So while hot it was transferred to a preheated oven at 200c I gradually turned up the heat and watched it darken, stopping and removing it at 230c, then another coat of oil which it greedily absorbed whilst still smoking hot. . As you can see it came through this unscathed, I've got some ideas as to why but mainly I think it was because I wasn't really that invested in it surviving, I enjoy patching cracks. If I'd cared too much it would surely have failed. . Interested to hear what you think was the deciding factor! . . #greenwoodworking #sloyd #spooncarving #woodworking #slöjd

I have ground and polished all of the current batch of double edged twca cams. This is the first one to have the final fettling by hand. . I'm where I want to be with these, especially proud of the crisp start to the curve on the inside, it makes no difference to how the blade cuts but it's nice to have enough control when forging to achieve this. . I'll be offering these up for sale, primarily to customers that have waited patiently on my waitlist, but if I have capacity I'll list any left over for online sale. Quite how I'll do this I've not decided yet. . #sloyd #spooncarving #woodworking #spoonknife #greenwoodworking

Back in May @zedoutdoors returned to my workshop for a few days of filming. It was a real pleasure having him over to visit. We had lots to catch up on and shot a collection of diverse videos. This is the first of them. This video on spoon knife edge geometry is something I've wanted to delve into for a long time. I hope it's useful for spoon knife users of all levels and helps set the groundwork for the second video in this series, which demonstrates my sharpening process (that video will be published this Friday). This video will also benefit those who make or aspire to make spoon knives. It offers a detailed look at the theory and intrinsic challenges of making these tools and my approach to solving these issues. The idea is that with a deeper understanding of the theory and concepts behind these blades, you can make, test, and refine your own versions, rather than resorting to the all-too-common photocopying approach in our space. To watch the video, head on over to YouTube and search for the following: ‘ZedOutdoors - Nic Westermann - Spoon Knife Edge Geometry’ . . . #spoonknife #hookknife #spooncarving #craft #woodworking #greenwoodworking #nature #traditionalcraft #art #whittle #sloyd #heritagecraft #traditionalskills #homestead #selfreliance #woodcraft #blacksmith #forging #toolmaking