Black walnut is the most dramatic of the three hardwoods I work with — deep chocolate-brown grain streaked with warm purples and grays, with a weight and density that gives every piece a sense of permanence. For a love spoon, that permanence is exactly right. A black walnut love spoon does not look like a trinket. It looks like what it is: an object made to last for generations.
I selects each walnut blank by hand, choosing pieces with exceptional figure and the density needed to hold fine carved detail over decades of display. The symbols — hearts, Celtic knots, a twisted stem — are carved with the same gouges and knives used by Welsh craftspeople for centuries. The finish is food-safe oil that deepens and enhances the natural colour of the wood without adding any synthetic coating.
Black walnut is naturally antimicrobial and one of the hardest domestic hardwoods in North America. A love spoon made from it is not a fragile keepsake — it is a robust, lasting object that can be passed between generations without losing its beauty or integrity.
Black walnut is the most dramatic of the three hardwoods I work with — deep chocolate-brown grain streaked with warm purples and grays, with a weight and density that gives every piece a sense of permanence. For a love spoon, that permanence is exactly right. A black walnut love spoon does not look like a trinket. It looks like what it is: an object made to last for generations.
I selects each walnut blank by hand, choosing pieces with exceptional figure and the density needed to hold fine carved detail over decades of display. The symbols — hearts, Celtic knots, a twisted stem — are carved with the same gouges and knives used by Welsh craftspeople for centuries. The finish is food-safe oil that deepens and enhances the natural colour of the wood without adding any synthetic coating.
Black walnut is naturally antimicrobial and one of the hardest domestic hardwoods in North America. A love spoon made from it is not a fragile keepsake — it is a robust, lasting object that can be passed between generations without losing its beauty or integrity.
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