Pittosporum Spoons?

I've done a fair amount of reading about working with green wood, but don't generally have access to fresh-cut wood, so I have a lot of questions.  I suppose that's normal when doing something for the first time.  I took a limb of a pittosporum down the other day and thought I'd try to make some spoons.  Our pittosporum trees are evergreen, about 25 feet tall, with trunks of 6-8" diameter.

I know nothing about the wood of the pittosporum.  An internet search was fruitless.  No idea if the wood is good for anything other than holding the tree upright.  Is it toxic or allergenic?  Is the wood soft or hard?  Will it split nicely and is it workable with hand tools?

The limb I took down was only about 3-4" in diameter.  Seems like people usually start with far larger blanks when making spoons.  But it's what I have, so I'll see what I can do.

Cutting into useful sized pieces using a 26" handsaw that usually cuts dry wood.
It was helpful to keep the saw plate lubricated with oil.

Before working on the spoon blanks, I thought I'd try splitting a small off-cut first.  So I got out my high-tech splitting equipment and to my delight, it split very nicely.

Hatchet, rubber mallet and 2" thick poplar "chopping block"

A small piece of pittosporum split

So I split the first three pieces from the larger section of the limb - this went OK, but it wasn't as easy because there were some knots and irregularities to contend with.  Then I removed the bark with the hatchet - it came off easily.  I was interested in seeing how a drawknife would cut in this fresh-cut wood, so I did some initial shaping with that.  The wood peeled away with ease!  I see now why green woodworkers love drawknife work on their wood.

Rough shaping the handle with a drawknife

Before going too far, I drew a spoon shape on the wood, then removed more wood to get closer to the lines.

Rough layout - just making it up as I go along

Three future spoons or dumpster fodder - time will tell

I also used the hatchet to do rough shaping, using techniques I've read about and seen in videos.  It worked pretty well, but in the position below, my back was arguing after a short while.  Maybe if I had a real chopping block (and room to keep one), it would be more ergonomic.

All for now.  I have 6 spoon blanks roughed out and will let them dry for a few weeks.  No idea where this will lead, but at least it's fun to learn something new.

Oh, and if anybody out there knows anything about pittosporum wood, please leave a comment.