How to: Make a Hand Carved Wooden Spoon

In most kitchens, including mine, wooden spoons are treated as more of an ingredient than an investment piece of cookware. Sure, we hop to get a year or two of meals out of them, but they get burned, or stained with wine or beets or turmeric and the wood gets all fuzzy and we toss them after some use and then buy another set of three cheap ones from the discount store.

But, that’s sort of silly, isn’t it? A wooden spoon, properly cared for, should last for a lifetime. A wooden spoon should be something you love, that you purposefully choose from the utensil caddy because you want to use it. An heirloom.

So, start with the right spoon: one you carved yourself. I love the potential of this as a woodworking project, because it’s so easy to get started. All you need is a small length of hard wood, a coping saw to cut the basic shape, and a small set of gouges and carving tools you can snag at the art supply store. Or, you can buy actual spoon blanks. Less than $20 of tools and materials, for sure.

Of course, it’ll take practice, but this is a skill I’m willing to learn. And the holidays are coming up…

Get a technique intro and how-to from Instructables: DIY Hand Carved Wooden Spoons