Quick Spoon Blanks

I thought I'd share how I make my spoon blanks. Normally I do my axe work everyday, all year round, the same as I've done since around 2009. The axe to me is the greatest extension of the human body, and the eldest tool we know of in existence.

When I'm axing, it takes me away to a far place. My escape vehicle, and I can chop, split, carve, and even shave with it just as fast as I can think. If you've seen my wandering story telling show where I axe out and carve my cups to completion in an hour, the axe is just another part of my body. I can have discussions while chopping, and there is music to the rhythm of the axe.

As you may have read I took the year off from carving which was a first for me. This was due to some pretty severe and painful chronic arthritis in my hands. So I'm very rusty, and this is the first blank I've made in weeks. With each chop I grit my teeth, but I'm slowly building back my strength and also my spirit.

Normally I'm standing while I carve so I can utilize my entire body mechanics from the feet up while chopping. But not too shabby, normally after this first blank I'll axe out another five or ten, and by the end I've gotten into a flow. The flow state is where speed and efficiency kick in, this is what my great friend Del Stubbs has taught me. He says one day I will be able to do this blindfolded, as he used to do while turning bowls on his lathe.

The poor attempt a a song is a cover of Delaney Davidson, a friend of a friend from New Zealand who writes some of my favorite music of all time. This is a cover of Delaney's cover from an old Abner Jay single called "I'm So Depressed" or "Depression". I recorded this almost exactly a year ago in March 2020 when my hands were so busted and swollen I could barely turn a door handle. It was quite fun for once to explore vocal ranges I didn't realize I had, as I could barely fret a guitar. I never finished it as I don't like to go back and alter a moment in time.

But I'm trying to break this habit of hiding and archiving my daily practices such as recording. There is a lot I think needs cleaning up, and re-sung! But for a recording made mainly on my cellphone and pieced together later, I had a lot of fun getting lost in Delaney's unique macabre and folkie sounds. But it's a snapshot of that time back then, bandaids - clunks and all. If you listen closely you can probably hear the ziplock bags of ice I had taped to my hands while I sang and drank tins of ale all night belting out some hobo minstrel music.

I plan to revisit this song this year, and record it from the ground up again, including drums, clinking bones I found in the woods, harley parts, axe chopping, and the other bells and whistles! Lo-Fi Spooky Tunes at it's finest! If you hear this Delaney, I didn't do ya justice!! Just a thank you for your music as it got me through some pretty funky and dark times!

-Alex

P.S. Does anyone else love chewing on black birch trees - betula lenta? It tastes like wintergreen as has medicinal properties. The people's of yesteryear used to brush their teeth with twigs from this tree as betulin and other properties are known to fight bacteria and other baddies! Who would've thunk it?