David Good

I learned about blade safety the hard way a couple of years ago when I chopped through two tendons in my hand.

At least we got this video out of it:



I was using a cane machete with a hook on the back while wearing a straw hat. I crouched down to open a coconut, took a swing, hooked my hat and brought the blade down on the back of my hand. Brutal.

I thank God a local doctor was able to stitch me back together, but it took a long time to heal and still hurts. I will be forever grateful that I can still play guitar. That was my biggest fear.

I would get a guy with a sawmill lined up and have him cut them into boards. Seriously - that could be a lot of good lumber. You could turn around and sell the boards if you didn't need them all, but I've found having some wood around is always a good thing.

I made friends with a local sawmill guy and have literally found logs by the side of the road, had him cut them up, then used the wood to make furniture.

My biggest trouble has been with carving the bowl of the spoon. I have three tiny gouge chisels but it takes forever. I like this solution:

I started on a sea grape wood spoon last night. I sawed off a nice limb at the beach, then got it home and found that it definitely does not want to split in straight splits, instead, choosing to crack in fractal twists all over the place, so I gave up and chopped out a spoon blank on the miter saw before I ruined the whole piece. The rest of the carving is all by hand, though.

And yes, the wood is actually pink. It's really pretty stuff - looks like it belongs on a beach.

Here's the cocoa wood. I'm now also using a fixed-blade Stanley razorknife. Works well for the little details.

And this one is all hand-carved. Cocoa is soft, but nice to carve. Doesn't split like the beach hibiscus.

I got a better one now. Cocoa wood!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs34wH3l3-K/

I decided to carve a spoon before seeing this thread... and now here we all are! Must be the permie zeitgeist.

Here's mine: https://www.instagram.com/p/BsnlpbVlVK2/

I cheated on the bowl and used my Dremel after cutting my hand in the exact same spot as Nicole. BLOOD BROTHERS NOW!

That wood is beach hibiscus, which carves easily and it pretty strong but tends to be a bit thready.

After working on that one, and then losing it when the children cleaned the porch, I tried to go all by hand last weekend at the beach, carving a piece of seagrape wood. That didn't work out, as I had the same problem as Raven. It was invisible until I started carving, but sea grape also has pith through the middle. My piece of wood was looking very nice... and then I hit a very soft core and found out it was worthless for a spoon.

I'll try, try again. I'm using a Mora knife that Marjory Wildcraft sent me as a gift. It holds a very nice edge, but I think a blade with zero curve would do even better.

I also found my first spoon again and am going to work on it some more.

Great project.

I've saved some cow bones so I can try to make flutes like these:



I attempted one from a goat bone two weeks but couldn't get it to whistle.

I also am going to use portions of them for guitar nuts and saddles. I know I can make guitars.

When I was a teenager, I used a big leg bone from a dog to make the handle of a knife. The blade was made from a ground-down file, then I carved the handle to fit and epoxied it together. It looked decent, though it wasn't a work of fine art.

Plant nursery, hands down.

I made about $1000 per month (averaged through the year - nothing was happening in winter, lots in the spring and fall) in about 1/10 acre of nursery space. Hit two farmer's markets a week and moved a lot of plants. Find a good niche. Mine was perennial vegetables, rare edibles, and fruit trees.