Beautiful! Lucky recipients

I probably use my bamboo scraper/spoon the most. It’s just right for stirring stir fries etc on cast iron :-)

I use the same as colleenoz - rarely spoons. I would use two wooden spoons for a salad bowl though

I like one like pictured by Colleenoz and Gargamel but I like mine slotted. Or l like a spoon like one like #4 & #7 counting down from the top of your first pic

Wooden spoons rock. I have three of them. The first two were from each of my grandmothers. The last one is carved ironwood from Jamaica.

Love your spoons @fawnridge (Ricky) Especially the top one.

We make something like the scraper. We call it a spatula.

FWIW - I am always suprised what people call spoons. To me it means something be wood metal or plastic with some kind of basin or indentation.

Those are gorgeous! I'm always impressed by your work. I love wooden spoons. my favorite are pretty flat with a deep round edge that's good for gently scraping the bottoms of pots, but sufficiently round in the bowl for tasting. My very favorite has a long shaft that had a run-in with something hot a very long time ago, and is now arced. Hard to place in the drawer. But I've never found a replacement and the bend doesn't hurt its function.

Agmiss, beautiful spoons! Would love to hear how you got started making spoons. Are these available for sale? What wood are they made of and what finish do you use on them? I love to see anything handmade.

They are beautiful!

Your spoons are beautiful, but my own favorite wooden tool is a mortar & pestle that I bought at an art show from the person who made it. It's in Cathedral City, and I have not photographed it.

I also love wooden salad bowls and have a collection of vintage bowls from the 1950s-60s. I bought one set of individual salad bowls on eBay for cheap - the finish on them was peeling, and so I stripped that off and replaced it with carnauba wax, which is what I used to use on my surfboards.

I have a koa wood chopping board that I bought in Hawaii that I like a lot also, in addition to one that I bought from Ann T that is maple.

I have a fairly decent collection of wooden spoons of various woods, and I especially like the ones made of zebrawood (more like a spatula) and olive wood. Maple is also a very nice wood for spoons - is that what you used?

What lovely wooden spoons!

My faves are more flat - and I do use a wooden spatula more than a wood spoon. I don't like a deep bowl for cooking food - more for serving. I have a bamboo set something like this:

The first and second on the left are my go-tos for cooking.

I have a wooden pestle and a ceramic mortar. I've often thought about getting a ceramic or stainless steel pestle, but never can find them sold without the mortar, which I don't need.

Something else I use often that's made from wood is a handheld citrus reamer.

agmss15, those are gorgeous! What kind of wood do you use?

I don't really have a favorite. I grab whatever I'm in the mood for.

Thanks all! Especially for the compliments and sharing photos.

The finished spoons in the original post are black walnut. Most of the utensils we make are cherry. Other ’local’ hardwoods that we use are maples, oaks and ashes. We only really use exotic woods as details.

As for finishes we use a beeswax/walnut oil for anything that touches hot wet foods. Other things get polyurethane.

We have an Etsy shop. I think I should not link directly on here. But you can pm me for the link - though let me know here. Sometimes I can connect to the messages and sometimes not.

"Messaging" does not show up in your profile - only "Ideabooks" and "Activity."

You can message me and send me a link to your Etsy shop. I was going to start one myself, but I don't stay in one place long enough, and I would have to keep putting my store "on vacation," which I read was a bad idea to do.

I don’t often use spoons for stirring because I prefer having something with a straight top edge so I can scrape the bottom of the pot completely so it doesn’t scorch.

Years ago (like about 30) Ikea had a heavy polymer spoon with a straight edge and a reasonably thick, non-flexible handle which is my very favourite. It’s perfect for stirring something heavy like jam and preventing the bottom from scorching. I bought four and gave DD two when she moved out and have always wanted to get more but they’ve never had them again whenever I’ve been to Ikea :-(

I love a long wood utensil that is called a risotto spoon. I had thought it was some kind of spurtle. I liked it so much that I decided to buy one for each of my three kids for Christmas and to tie it to a gift for each as part of the bow. It is now my daughter’s favorite too. it is a long wood spoon with a circular hole where the bowl of the spoon would be, but the spoon part itself is flat and not a bowl. The tip of the spoon is not oval but flat that comes to an angle on one side of that flat end. That angle and the flat end of the utensil is perfect for stirring and keeping the bottom of the pan and the angle clean where the sides of the pan meet the bottom. The hole in the center of the rounded end allows for a more vigorous stirring without slopping the sauce or pudding over the edge of the pan.

I've just bethought me of something I was given as a holiday present just now. It looks like spalted olive and thinks it's a spatula. It's just a bit dished, and does get spatula sharp at the leading edge, but it doesn't look at all the right size or shape for spatuling. And the wood is too pretty! I think it can hang around beatifically until it gets in the way... :)

I love pairs of spoons. And I have a bamboo spatula that I like.

I really love this spoon? I don't know why as I'm not really a cat person but it has such a funny face.

agmss15 your spoons are gorgeous.

Thanks for the term, sheilajoyce - the teardrop bamboo spatula I have has a hole in it too, unlike the photo I posted.

agmiss15, I think I found you. Are you Sprig?

Someone in Maine won the megabillion jackpot last night.

My favorite is the one you sent me...second from the left. Nice handle heft. Second favorite is the SurLaTable laminated bamboo. The shape more than the material. Nice for soups start to finish. The slight point like a spatula for beginning the miropoix, then the slight spoon indent for later tasting for seasoning. (both hidden from DH)

He has a habit of using them for bread dough mixing, then soaking, then dishwasher, gasp! I have some silicone and low cost bamboo sets for his needs in the stove-side crock.

The few far right i picked up on our road trips through Maine. Cheese/paté Knives. We always stop at the, Maine Crafts Associantion for gifting....like our neighbors that collect our mail, etc.

i like my honey dipper; also a very tiny 1 tsp scoop that came with some hungarian paprika

The one on the far left was from a set pair from my mother years ago. Its mate broke in half. A bit thin in the handle. The notches are useless. Hard to clean. DH had a habit of using it for scrambled eggs. Best for a salad server as i believe intended. (tucked away)

I do want a couple of these we have intended to make for a few years now. Kenji has a couple he reaches for constantly. Can't find the ones he has but one is about 14 inches and maybe a 10 inch. My single small 'one egg' carbon steel pan needs one. I'm using a small silicone but i like wood.

@lizbeth-gardener That is me! Or rather I am half of that.

Thanks for more photos. Off to the shop today to mill more wood. And tweak our goals. I will try to sneak one or three experimental shapes in as well.

@sheilajoyce_gw

We make a flattened out risotto ’spoon’. It had a moment during lockdown as a sourdough stirrer. We really only make the one with a flatter end now.

@sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)

I see a couole of familar things there. Including a piece from Maggie’s Farm - thrird from the right. He makes beautiful work and is just the nicest man. I think he has been focusing more on his flowers kately

https://www.flowersinwood.com/

This is as close as we get to that last shape.

agmss15,

Sprig Woodwork? I ordered a 12" spatula from you the other day. 😉

Beautiful spoons indeed. I reach most frequently for my bamboo scraper/spoon. It gets in the corners. I have two and they are my most used wooden untensils.

My favorite wooden utensils, and I'm sure both were inexpensive, are a straight scraper similar to what others have pictured, and a wooden spoon that is more of a long oval than a circle. Both have "lots of flavor" and both of our 40-something kids have both utensils on their "dibs" lists for after we're gone. Good luck on that one! ... I do love the "fancy" woods, though, and have a special spurtle from Scotland that I am very careful with. ;-)

@Judi - Thank you! My sister said ’Awwww’ ehen I told her..

Yesterday we had an ice storm. And we got to the shop and milled a pile of cherry. The rough boards are in the foreground. I chopped them into more manageable lengths. My sister was jointing them to make them flat. Then I resawed them to closer to final thickness. Finally we planed them. Lots of sawdust was made.

I prefer my wooden spoons to have a shallow bowl and I use them for everything, including checking my jelly. I also have a favorite bamboo scraper like colleenoz's that is wide, slightly curved, and thinner at the end. I've tried to buy others but they're never shaped as nicely as mine is. I also really like my wooden spoon rests from Williamsburg... they've developed a beautiful patina! especially where they were too close to a flame. lol!

Oh wow, those ARE beautiful. Dad and I made a couple of spoons before he passed away, Elery still has one, but I never made another one.

My favorite utensil is also a flat wooden spatula, perfect for getting down into the edge of pans. I just like wood, the way it looks and smells and feels, the grain and pattern of each unique piece. I think that's why I love my butcherblock counter so much.

Annie

Another potential fave is a wooden barbecue grill ”brush” with kind teeth (crenellations?) on one end and a shovel style handle on the other. Much better than those wire brushes that lose their bristles. Potential, because I haven't really put it through its paces. My barbecues are small enough that the grills can go in the sink.

I like your risotto spoons. Do they have extra long handles? I love the long handles for cooking with my deep pots.

My favorite wooden utensil is a spurtle - from Graham Kerr 1970's. The original spurtle of old was used to stir porridge and has a totally different shape. The ones posted now are all over the place in their shapes. His was kinda bent, flat on one side, rounded smooth on the other. I have used it forever, like 50+ years, for absolutely everything imaginable. But, it is not a spoon it is a versatile "stick".

@nancyofnc - can you photograph it?

I've always admired the spoons and the pizza/bread peels that you and your sister make.

agmss15 , I am repeating what everyone else here has commented about how beautiful your work is. More, I'd like to add, I feel your work has graceful and elegant friendliness as a kitchen implement. They make food more delicious.

I am admiring what a professional workshop you have. I have a ton of tools in my shop, but I never bothered to clean up and organize, so it looks like a junk yard.

I recommend a tool for you, if you don't have one already. I got an expensive gift, a table saw made by Sawstop.

Here is a video of that tool:

I ate a coconut sometime ago, I needed a ladle in the kitchen, so I used the coconut shell to make a couple of ladles.

dcarch

agmss15,

It's beautiful! Thank you so much!

Thank you @Judi