r/Spooncarving

We agreed on $40 but I’m having 2nd guesses. Other people sell ryobi or wen for just $10 more…

Nice ash cooker all finished up
Love the grain
Tough to carve
Came out alright!

My first attempt at wood carving in any form! I am pretty happy with it but also excited to try more. I have not used it yet — right now just showing it off to everyone I know.

Bonus pic of the cat trying to help with the carving. (Mac loves to help with crafts and with board games)

Wood is Butternut
Kit was from Butternut Spoon Carver

I’ve never carved anything before so please be kind!

I am trying to carve a Welsh love spoon for my Welsh wife to be and honestly I’m not disappointed with my progress so far as I never expected it to be perfect!

I’ve hit a bit of a wall though, especially with the edges where I initially cut too far into the template and am left with gouges on the sides of the spoon. Is there any kind of magic way of getting these out without compromising the shape of the spoon? I suspect not but I just need a balanced view of how to progress here.

I also had a breakage halfway through and had to glue the spoon back together. You can still see one of the joins on the left side of the heart. Is there anything I can do about this? I feel like using wood filler will stick out even more than just leaving it alone?

I don’t ever expected it to be flawless so do I just embrace the imperfections? Any tips and advice greatly appreciated!

I found this template online and the crank on the bowl of this spoon seems crazy. Do you all think this will look proper once I finish the bowl? I’m resisting the urge to bring the end of the bowl down some but I’m starting to question that.

Accidentally split past the intended shoulder when roughing out, argh. Ended up with this instead of a larger symmetrical job. Many of my more interesting spoons are the product of mistakes.

Simple finish/design, but I think that's what the wood wants

Hit a small milestone in life and wanted to celebrate with a new tool for spoon carving. Carrying around an assortment of knives can be a bit much sometimes. We plan to start going to local markets soon and I often whittle at work when the opportunity arises I’d love feedback on this particular knife vs the spoon jack by flex cut! Thanks everyone! Hope all of your spoons turn out better than you thought they would!

2nd wooden spoon for my son's teacher at his Waldorf school. All hand cut and carved with hand axe and wood carving knife.

Carved this Fish Spoon from an off-cut I had of some live edge walnut.

Carved a new spoon. First time I feel like I nailed the tranition from handle to bowl.

I don’t seem to be very productive right now. Here’s spoon #3 of this year. Rotted birch with a funky greenish hue.

Born of a small walnut offcut

I used more of the wormy black cherry because I think it’s sick a pretty wood. I know the holes aren’t good for an eating utensil, but I can fill those with epoxy if I decide to use it.

Made in birch some months ago, kolrosing with cinnamon, linseed oil on surface. I have an etsy store.

Hey, I started spoon carving at the beginning of 2025 and I’ve hanging around here almost as long, but this is my first post.

Here I am sharing my first ~9 months of spoons in chronological order.

1. Basswood blank that came with a spoon carving starter kit
2. Another basswood blank from a kit
3. Mulberry blank from a kit
4. Scavenged ash from the woods
5. Starting to experiment with an eating spoon style with basswood
6. Teaspoon made from apple from my garden
7. Basswood
8. Hazel
9. I tried carving a spoon from a cypress tree in my garden that I had felled… whilst I had plenty of wood I didn’t much like the smell so this was my first and last with it
10. A pair of salad serving spoons carved from ash and finished with milk paint - a birthday present for my dad
11. Teaspoon made from lilac from my garden
12. Sundae spoon from the same lilac
13. Dolphin spoon made from hazel
14. Cooking spoon made from ash and finished with milk paint
15. Pear, and my first baked spoon

I’ve made a few more since which I’ll photograph and share at some point, but I’ve also slowed down a little whilst I’ve been creating leather sheaths for my axes and knives, and I’m also in the middle of building an anarchists workbench for my other woodworking that I like to do.

I’ve got loads of hazel, apple, pear and damson blanks in the freezer which I hope to get working on soon :-)

Using basswood blanks in the beginning helped me a lot with my confidence to play with different shapes and carving small. Highly recommend for the aspiring spoon carver.