This project was carried out under the guidance of an old friend and woodworking master I whom I
first met when he was teaching at the Emerson Waldorf school I attended for Middle school. This spoon
was one of the first things I made under his guidance. Later when both he and I had left the school,
I asked him if I could work with him independently; I then made a number of other things including a
crossbow and a copper bowl. The level of perfection he demanded in his students’ work is clearly
visible in these beautiful projects.
I started with a rough spoon “blank” of black walnut. Using a rasp and file I shaped the handle
before using a gouge or a “spoon” to shape the bowl. The entire spoon then had to be filed (except
the concave areas which were scraped) to achieve the correct thickness, symmetry and visual balance.
After being sanded with progressively finer papers ending at 800 grit, the whole thing was
thoroughly saturated with linseed oil.