Musical spoons

I met with a woman in Bangalore who plays clay pots - she had gotten my name from someone I had shown my "good energy spoon" to and wanted to ask me if I could carve her some musical spoons.  We sat for over an hour talking about wood.  We had various pieces of wood we listened to, trying to find the right resonance.

Finally, we got focused on a piece of honge - the tree that is growing out in front of our office.  I had taken a few pieces from a pile that the streetworkers had left when they had trimmed a few branches a few weeks back.

Honge, or Indian Beech, has a very nice density that emits a sound somewhere in between "sharp" and "dull".  Sharp would be something like Rosewood - a very hard wood that almost crackles when two pieces are hit together.  On the other end of the spectrum, "dull" would be something like Butternut, which is so soft that it sort of absorbs its own sound when two pieces are hit together.

I'll begin working on the wood within a few days - I need to find an axe to split it.  Someone suggested I take it up to the guy who sells coconuts - he has a very sharp machete that might be able to split the wood lengthwise.  But I think I'll wait to find an axe; I don't want to break the coconut guy's machete...  And then I'll begin drawing my knife upon the surfaces...

It's fascinating to think that this piece of wood will someday create music...