I have been carving spoons for about 10 years in butternut and cherry. It is a great way to begin carving and a fun activity in itself. I have carved birds, animals and figures but I always return to spoon carving. It can be a hypnotic conversation between you, your knife and the wood.

When I began it was a way to amuse myself while I was being idle. I used to take a person fishing who loved to fish. I feel like there is a fine line between fishing and sitting beside the river doing nothing.

My first spoon was made from a piece of cherry flooring scrap a neighbor gave me. Most of the instructions and videos on line were either for ornate “love spoons” or spoons carved from green wood by someone with a chainsaw and roughed out with an axe and finished with a knife and gouge or curved spoon knife. I wanted something functional. A spoon to stir, serve or eat with. I also wanted something to carry with me that I could work on any time. Using a gouge really requires a vice and that limits you to working in a shop. Green wood is very soft and easy to carve but as it dries it warps and can split ruining all your hard work. Kiln dried wood is harder to carve but very stable. I am lucky to live very close to a saw mill that saws local hardwoods. I work with cherry, butternut and am now trying red birch. Butternut carves as nicely as basswood but has a lovely grain like walnut that darkens with age. It is lighter in weight than cherry but much easier to carve. From a carving stand point and especially for new carvers it is the wood of choice. Cherry is harder to carve but it is also a much denser wood. It is heavier and if you sand to 1500 grit sand paper it almost polishes. I have just started working with red birch and don’t have much to say about it yet. Birch is a very traditional spoon wood.

I give most of my spoons as gifts, I have carved hundreds over the years. I have recently opened an etsy shop. I sell blanks in various sizes and woods to allow others to begin this fun and fascinating hobby.