Question about 3d Carving a wood spoon and bits

[krishays (Kris H.)]

I have a Shapeoko 5 Pro 4x2 and I have a spindle which works great. I just started 3d carving and I made a wood spoon. I did two cuts side by side the top and back as you can see in my photos here. I used a 1/8" bit but I have some questions. I am wondering how a 1/4" bit would work on the rough pass and then a 1/8" bit on the finish pass and what would be the recommended step over?

This is just my first test cut and now I have a Jig that I made which I am excited to give it a try this weekend. When I use the 1/8" bit the bottom cut, takes over an hour and I can cut that down by 1/2 the time or less if I use a 1/4" but I wanted to get some opinions here if that will actually work well?

I am assuming a ballnose bit would be the recommended tools to use?

[Tod1d (Tod (with 1 'd'))]

My rule of thumb with 3D is use the largest ball mill you can to get the detail you want.
In your case, the sharpest detail is the intersection of the spoon & handle.
I would use the 1/4 ball for both rough & finish. If you can double the stepover, and double the feedrate, your paths are 4x faster.

[krishays (Kris H.)]

@Tod1d

ball for both rough & finish. If you can double the stepover, and double the feedrate, your paths are 4x faster.

Thank you that was very helpful!