I haven't seen many salad servers with a hinge as they are mostly two separate spoons or spatulas. The idea came from seeing a steel version shown below:
 |
| An old steel salad server. |
I had two green billets of hazel left from making some spindles and I decided to have a try making a wooden version of the servers. The billets were about 12 inches long and 3 inches in diameter. I think the two hinged spoon version is a good design as it enables larger pieces of salad such as tomatoes to be easily picked up and can be used as spoons to get rice etc.
I first chopped-out a blank using a carving axe, in fact alot if the initial work was done with an axe and also a saw to make appropriate stop-cuts. This is basically the same method used to make spoon blanks but remembering that the finger holes are at right angles to the spoons and enough width must be left to make these. Also the handles need to bend away from the spoons to allow for the correct movement of the "spoon jaws" as they open and close.
 |
| The roughed-out blank after starting the knife work. |
The finger holes were drilled with a #10 (5/8 th inch) auger to start with. The holes were later enlarged using a fret saw and round wood file and chamfered to their final size for comfortable use. The wood had some slight spalting that gave some darker streaks but usually hazel has little natural colour.
 |
| The two blanks with the hinge-hole drilled to enable the alignment more easily. |
At this stage I decided to drill the "hinge-holes" in the handles by adjusting the position so that it worked well. A small pin was temporarily used as the hinge. By fixing in this way it was easier to make adjustments so that the spoons and handles to match in size. The position of the half-housing at the hinge was marked with the handles positioned in the open and closed positions. The housings were then sawn and chiselled to half the depth of the handle. When adjusted, this allowed further carvings on the handles so that they matched in profile. The same was done with the shape of the spoons.
The tricky part is to get the handles and spoons to match and at the same time have the handles and spoons to align and close together.
The rest was just knife work and then sanding to get a smooth finish. I have no problem in sanding with Abranet to get the finish I want. Sometimes I like to see the knifemarks and don't sand so in my opinion there are no rules on this as it's up to individual taste.
I then purchased some 2 mm brass bolts with washers and completed the hinge.
 |
| The spoons joined by a temporary hinge with the finger holes enlarged and the spoons roughly carved. |
 |
| Finished item with brass hinge and treatment with walnut oil. |
 |
| Top view. |
 |
| With jaws closed. |
