of Saws and Spoons

Some months ago I bought myself a jewelers saw and had fully intended to play right away. But life, as it sometimes does, got in the way and the saw was put away in my tool drawer.

Paige is in 3D design this semester and needed some tools for a wire sculpture project. When I showed her where to find my tools and reminded her which were off limits for her project, my new saw quietly said Hi there! Remember me?

Paige and I had a few things to pick up and headed off to Wally World, while there I plunked down 94 cents for some stainless spoons. Figuring I could play with the saw and if I mangled the spoon well at least it wasn't antique cutlery!

First spoon up snapped. It didn't bend in a graceful arc at all, it bent at a hard 90 and then fell apart, oops!

So I break out the torch, obviously a little annealing is in order. Heat spoon number two to a soft glowing red all along the handle. That should do the trick! Sit down to my desk and grab the spoon with my right hand to adjust it for the pliers. OUCH that's HOT!

I've been playing with fire for years and still somehow managed to forget to quench my spoon. There I am looking at a perfectly scalloped scorch mark on my index finger and thumb, darn it! Walk into the kitchen, quench the spoon, set it down on the welders mat, and put some lavender oil on my fingers.

With some force I'm able to wrap the spoon around the mandrel. Rather lopsided and not at all graceful, it is a start. "Look!" I show the kids. The bowl of the spoon is still attached and they ask if I'm working on putting a knot in the spoon and offer free spoon bending if I just buy some ice cream! sigh

With children thoroughly unimpressed I pull out the saw and cut off the bowl end of the spoon. Slip it back onto the mandrel and estimate a current size and a desired size. With a few sizes in between those numbers I grab the hammer and start the process of convincing the handle it wants to be round and a much smaller size than it currently is.

When I was in high school my favorite ring was a spoon ring. After much coercing and a little pain I think a spoon ring may become a favorite yet again. It's a little "worn around the edges" and stands an inch tall but it wears every bit as comfortably as the one I had way back when.





It took snapping a couple blades but I think I've got the tension down and can hear the difference in the sound as the blade starts to dull. I'm really looking forward to continued playtime and you can look forward to seeing more sawn pieces in the future. Maybe...... even some pierce work :D

Thanks for stopping by!
See ya next time!