Spatula

I hope you won't mind an occasional post about bigger pieces of my metal work.

This is a spatula I have wanted to make for a long time to use in my kitchen. It is made of steel, with a African Blackwood handle.

I had to find a special type of steel for this project. I finally found it at an elevator company. The steel is almost as hard as the saw blades I used to cut out the house fly design. Because of that, it took forever to cut out my design and my blades kept breaking. I used 144 of them to cut it out, a gross of saw blades!!! I suppose I could have had it water cut rather than doing it by hand. I'm just stubborn I suppose. If I decide to make them to sell, I will have them cut.

The stem is all file work. The design in it is created by twisting the metal. When I turned the Blackwood I decided to turn it in the shape of the handle on my jewelers saw frame. A little private joke to remind me what a nightmare I had cutting out the fly.

I will never use Ebony again now that I have used African Blackwood, particularly in my miniature work. It is not brittle and the grain is just as fine. All I had to do was oil it after the sanding was finished.