Dogs and Soccer!!!

Breaking News !!

Reds hold on for a 1-0 victory.

Landseer, latest soccer sensation!!

This gallery photograph of our Newfoundland Dog, "Biggles", proudly posing after his quick intervention in a game of soccer.

It wasn't an intentional game, it all started on one of our daily strolls. It was a quiet Sunday morning in the park, not many people around and with him being of good nature we decided to let him off leash. No problem, he sticks to your side like butter eyeing your every movement. Well, as you can imagine we walked pass the local soccer field where a friendly game of soccer was in progress, blue stripped jerseys were attacking from the left towards the solid reds on the right. A long through ball was placed towards the forward on the right edge of the field. The attacker controlled the ball and easily side stepped the defender to head towards the goal. Clearly this was a very serious situation for the red team with only the goalie standing there to defend their precarious 1-0 lead.

Before we new it, "Biggles" our Newfie was away. A mighty fine slide tackle ensued and up he pops, game ball. Of course there was a mighty whistle from the referee, with the game coming to a halt. "Biggles" stopped in his tracks gazing at the referee with the soccer ball hanging from his mouth. The referee walks sternly up to him and does no more than to show him the red card, the game's over for him.

Disappointed, he walks slowly towards us with his head hung low, but in his mind we know what he's thinking, the reds still retain their 1-0 lead.

Jacaranda Blues!!

Living here in Southern California gives you the option of being able to surf in the morning and ski in the afternoon making it one of the most unique places to live within the USA.

I find that my favorite season is during the spring time where the streets and avenues take on a whole new look with the blossoms of Cherry and Jacaranda filling the once dormant trees. One would never know that the Jacaranda is an import and native of Brazil, Northwestern Argentina and Bolivia. It has established itself in courtyards and landscaping making for a spectacular display in spring and early summer of beautiful clusters of lavender blue flower.


I use to have a couple of Jacaranda trees in my yard but I found that the clay soil was not to their liking. Inadequate drainage caused the roots to rot, leaving me with dead ten foot tall trees. They tend to like well drained soil so if I were to grow them again there would have to be extensive soil amendment done.

Removing the trees was not a problem, after all there were no roots! I thought that maybe I could use the timber for making a couple of chisel handles. Most of the moisture had already been purged from the tree so I turned up a couple of handles and was pleasantly surprised by the vivid grain.


Maybe this would make an interesting Welsh Lovespoon, I was a little apprehensive at first so I decided to make only a small example. I decided to make a classic design that incorporated Celtic Knotwork and Hearts. This would be intricate enough to see how suitable the timber would be and quite different.

I cut a section out of the four inch trunk leaving the bark on for added interest, penciled in the design and went to work. I found the timber hard to carve, so sharp carving tools were essential but progress was reasonably quick. Once carved the timber sanded to a very smooth finish and after applying a wax paste finish the grain of the Jacaranda jumped out making the spoon come alive.

My Jacaranda trees were dead but by utilizing the timber they have been brought back to life in a unique fashion, be it as a chisel handle or a Welsh Lovespoon.

Senior Citizens in Dog Years

Just to keep the topics fresh on this blog I thought I would talk a little about our Newfoundland Dogs.

Our two Newfoundland Dogs are both well over the age of ten and as dog people well know, the bigger the breed the shorter the life span. We have been fortunate in having a couple of animals that have truly amazed us in their longevity. We have always provided them with the best food available on the market such as WELLNESS. This is a human grade product and it is obvious that they have thrived on it. It is made up of de-boned chicken, Atlantic whitefish, fruit and vegetables, healthy grains and vitamins and minerals.


During their early years we spent quite a considerable amount of money in training them to become obedient and it paid off but sometimes I think it would have been more fun for us in doing the training with some guidance. There are numerous good quality products on the market now such as Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer. This is a product that you can use numerous times during your pet ownership years. It is an easy step by step guide that you can follow and make adjustments that suit your own circumstances in the setting of your own backyard.

Having said that, our animals have done their tour of duty in their early years at the Pet Expo in Southern California with first class conduct. Needless to say they had to disregard the rules and lay out in the isle where the visitors were instead of the cubicle. Here they had maximum exposure and PETTING from all children at hand causing a major bottleneck!!!

Mahogany isn't Just for Furniture?

As in all fine furnishings you will find that Mahogany is somewhere near the top of the tree for beauty and finish.

Why not use it for Welsh Lovespoons I ask myself, is this not a fine furnishing in its own right?

The timber carves easily with sharp chisels and carving tools although it will leave a purple residue on your hands if you are one of those people who tends to perspire. The grain for the most part runs straight but you will find that it can reverse and tearing out may occur.


Care must be taken when carving, don't get carried away and over zealous or before you know it the wood has split further than you like. Even though this is a hardwood the grain is a little open compared to let's say Maple. Sanding to a smooth finish is a breeze using various grades of sandpaper and it buff up nicely to a silky finish using a paste wax.


With all my Welsh Lovespoons the utmost care is taken to ensure the best possible results but even so it doesn't always come out as planned. This particular spoon had its own set of problems, the loose balls in the cage were particularly challenging. With the openness of the grain it was difficult to carve within a confined space therefore taking longer than expected.

At the end of the day the carving was unique and pleasing to the eye, but along the way new lessons were learnt.

Making Use of Windfalls

During last winters record rainfalls and high winds a few of our trees in the yard sustained damage through broken limbs. One of our multi trunked Melaleuca trees took a turn for the worst and a whole trunk ended up separating from the rest and came crashing down.

The Melaleuca tree is easily recognized by the papery bark and the white bottle brush flowers that it displays. This tree is often found here in Southern California as an accent to a courtyard or landscaped garden.

Residents of Florida would probably look upon it in a different light as it is regarded as an aggressive invader. This tree which originates from Australia, New Guinea and New Caledonia prefers wettish conditions and poses its greatest threat to the Florida Everglades ecosystem where one paperbark tree can produce a dense island hammock nearly 600 feet in diameter in one year.

The trunk that had toppled over in our yard was approximately ten inches in diameter and twelve feet tall. With these ideal conditions the trunk was immensely heavy for its size due mainly to the amount of water that had been absorbed. To actually shift the limb it had to be cut into manageable pieces.


Eventually I was able to salvage about eight feet of usable timber from the trunk, after removing the bark, which was as much as two inches thick in places, the trunk ended up at a nominal thickness of six inches. This trunk was allowed to dry for six to eight month in the garage before I attempted to saw any material from it.

I decided to remove a twelve inch length from the trunk and cut it into slices of one half an inch in thickness. This was allowed to dry again for another month and during that time the timber did curl and crack a little due to moisture evaporation.

With these slices reasonably dry I took an outside slice that still had a ghosting of bark left and decided to design a Welsh Lovespoon that would incorporate Lovebirds, Hearts and Vines. I thought it would be a unique design and yet challenging because of the intricacy of the vine design.

I was hoping that the moisture content was now stabilized as I didn't want any additional cracking once the carving was in progress. I found carving this timber that it tended to feel a little spongy and yet hard. Maybe I was a little anxious as the vines were delicate and always apt to breaking.

Finalizing the Welsh Lovespoon is always a relief as the most difficult part is done but care still has to be taken when sanding with fine sandpaper. Several coats of paste wax follow and a good buffing brings the best out of the wood grain.

The end result, a satisfactory and unique Welsh Lovespoon.

Padauk, Hard, Brittle but Beautiful

I was fortunate to be given some off-cuts of Padauk from a colleague who was designing and building a cradle for his first child. It was a beautiful orange color.

After it started to oxidize, the color then turned to a deep red chestnut.

The first thing I noticed when I began carving with my small palm held carving chisels and gouges is that it splintered quite considerably when going with the grain. With this in mind, care had to be taken when removing the waste material from the spoon bowl to reduce the amount of splintering. This was to avoid any deep rips in this highly visible surface.

The initial carving was designed to have a double ended spoon with a central link. The idea was to mirror the design then have both spoons hanging from the one loose link. I had removed the material away from the link part of the carving and decided to start carving the bowls of the spoon before totally separating the body from the link. I know from previous experience that this process is the most critical.




During the process of removing the excess material I was distracted by my three year old son who of course wanted to play. Instead of placing the spoon safely out of harms way it was placed precariously on the bench and before I could do anything it topples to the floor and shatters into two pieces. My first reaction was to pick up the pieces and throw them into the scrap bin, after all a Welsh Lovespoon is carved from a single piece of wood. This designed piece was supposed to be linked together.

Several hours had already been put into the carving and now I new that it wasn't one of the easiest woods to carve. It was hard, brittle and produced very fine orange dust when sanded. This would leave your hands with an orange residue and stain your clothes.

Fortunately it DOES come out in the wash. Needless to say the design ended up as a single sided Welsh Lovespoon!!!

Exotic or Domestic Woods.

On the previous post I spoke about my latest hobby in carving Welsh Lovespoons. During the initial thought process I mulled over whether to use a domestic timber such as Maple, Poplar or Red Oak which are all readily available from your local Home Depot or Lowes. This was always an easy decision, drive down, select the board and come away with the material.

I also thought that a more exotic timber such as Padauk, Mahogany, Cocobolo and Rosewood would also make a very desirable carving. The trade off would be, visit a specialist lumber supplier or order on-line without first seeing the material. These suppliers of exotic timbers are not as common as say, your Home Depot! Nevertheless it would be nice to use something a little out of the ordinary.

Several other questions I had were, how would these timbers carve?
Did they have a tight straight grain or was it very open?

The answer to these questions would effect the overall finish as I wanted to use a natural paste wax to seal the finished Lovespoon. The look that I wanted for the Lovespoon should be as close to the natural color of the timber as possible.

Thinking back over the years I've used a lot of the more common timbers such as Maple, Oak and Mahogany but I wasn't too sure of exotics such as Padauk and Cocobolo.

This I decided would have to be worked out during the carving process.

On my next blog I'll talk about my findings on carving the more exotic timbers so far.