I ordered this last week and it arrived by post a few days ago.

It’s a carving axe. And it’s amazingly, scarily sharp. So I thought I’d give it a road test this afternoon.

I had some wood from my trip to Killiney Hill a month or so ago, and I decided I’d use some of that to make a spoon. I really had no idea how the axe would behave, or how useful if would be in carving something with an actual shape. My goodness, though, it was amazing.

I was pretty careful because I didn’t want to lose any fingers. Even so, its weight and sharpness made short work of the branch. Much quicker than trying to whittle the whole thing with a knife. Once I’d got it whittled to the correct shape, I finished it off with a knife and the curved spoon knife I bought from the same company, Wood Tools, a few months ago. The whole thing, including sanding and oiling, took about two and a half hours.

Here’s how it developed …

There was something very satisfying about this: using found wood and making some thing useful out of it using my hands and some sharp tools. Put me in a good mood, it did.

I did other things today too. Made some hummus …

And something I’ve been wanting to make for ages. Labneh. Labneh is a kind of cream cheese made by draining the liquid out of yoghurt. It’s currently hanging in the fridge and it’ll be ready by lunchtime tomorrow. I think I’ll see how it goes with smoked salmon.

Productive day.