Turning Beautiful Spoons on a Wood Lathe

Craft & Design Food & Beverage Woodworking
Turning Beautiful Spoons on a Wood Lathe
Grady Hillhouse used two pieces of walnut, a piece of paduak and a lathe to turn out an awesome pair of spoons/scoops.
Grady Hillhouse used two pieces of walnut, a piece of paduak, and a lathe to turn out an awesome pair of spoons/scoops.

It’s interesting to see what can be made using a lathe. Beyond making simple table legs, users have created everything from intricately designed pens to highly detailed jewelry using a myriad of materials.

Wood, one of the more versatile materials, can be combined and manipulated with other types to create some truly stunning pieces such as Grady Hillhouse’s pair of spoons, which he crafted almost entirely on his lathe.

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Hillhouse began his creation by sandwiching a piece of brightly colored paduak between two pieces of walnut, which he then offset on his lathe for multi-axis turning in order to achieve a distinct pattern for his spoons.

Grady’s spoons or scoops began their life as a composite block of wood, which were offset on his lathe to get that unique pattern.
Hillhouse’s spoons or scoops began their life as a composite block of wood, which were offset on his lathe to get that unique pattern.

Like carving out table legs, he then began cutting away the excess wood to form the base for the dinnerware (or breakfast/lunch-ware?).

Once the shape of the spoons was created, it was then time to refine the design into the actual utensils.
Once the shape of the spoons was created, it was then time to refine the design into the actual utensils.

Once the basic form was achieved, he then used a band saw to cut the leg in half and chucked (using a special clamp) each half back into the lathe to mill away the excess wood to form the actual scoops.

After all was said and done, they were then refined even further using sandpaper to smooth out any remaining rough edges and splinters along with applying some sealer. The end result is pretty great and quite striking considering this was Grady’s first attempt at milling out eating utensils using a lathe.

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