About American Black Walnut

Black walnut is the most dramatic of the 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 kitchen and love spoons, that permanence is exactly right.

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 harder domestic hardwoods in North America. When I make a spoon from it, I’m not making a fragile keepsake — I’m making a robust, lasting object that can be passed between generations without losing its beauty or integrity.

About Wild Cherry

Cherry wood has a quality that almost no other wood shares: it gets better with age. When freshly carved, cherry glows with a warm, pinkish-amber tone. Over months of use and exposure to light, it deepens into a rich reddish-brown that furniture makers call "patina". That means they are something that will visibly improve the longer you use it.

I selects American black cherry for its moderate density. The grain is typically straight and fine, giving the finished spoon a smooth, almost silky feel that synthetic spoons can never replicate.

About the various Maples

Hard maple is the workhorse of the hardwood world. It is the wood used for professional bowling alleys, butcher blocks, and NBA basketball courts — surfaces that must withstand extraordinary daily punishment. It is also one of the most visually clean woods I work with: pale cream to warm ivory in colour, with a tight, even grain that takes carving detail exceptionally well.

Over the this wood will look almost as good as it does when new. Its density means it resists scratching, staining, and absorbing odours better than softer woods.

About Rowan wood (aka mountain ash)

Rowan is not a wood you find in kitchen shops. It does not appear in the big timber catalogs or the mainstream woodworking supply yards, which is part of what makes a rowan spoon something special.

The wood itself is pale and close-grained, sitting somewhere between creamy white and warm honey depending on the piece. It is harder than it looks. Rowan belongs to the rose family — a botanical cousin of apple and cherry — and it shares that family's tendency toward a tight, smooth grain that carves cleanly and takes a fine finish.

There is also a long tradition behind this wood. Rowan has been used for tool handles, walking sticks, and kitchen implements across Northern Europe and the British Isles for centuries. People chose it not because it was common but because it was good — resistant to splitting, comfortable in the hand, and durable over long use.

About Redbud

Eastern redbud is one of the most visually striking woods I work with — and one of the most overlooked. Most people know the redbud tree by its flowers: the deep pink-purple blooms that appear all across Pennsylvania and the Eastern United States in early spring before the leaves arrive. What most people do not know is that the wood underneath those flowers is just as remarkable.

Redbud heartwood is a deep, saturated purple-pink — not a tint or a stain, but the actual colour of the wood as it comes off the tree. As a piece is carved and finished, the colour develops into something between burgundy and violet, shot through with the darker figure of the heartwood against the lighter sapwood. No two pieces look alike.

This is not a large timber. Redbud is a small tree, which means the pieces I work with are modest in dimension and I select them carefully. A redbud cooking spoon is something I make in small numbers because the material demands it. I shape each one to the proportions of the wood I have — slightly more compact than some of my other cooking spoons, but no less functional for it. The bowl is deep enough for real cooking work: stirring sauces, folding batters, lifting from a heavy pot.

About Ambrosia Maple

Ambrosia maple is regular hard maple that has been marked by nature before I ever touched it. The ambrosia beetle — a small insect that burrows into living and recently felled maple trees — leaves behind a trail of mineral staining as it moves through the wood. The result is something no woodworker could produce deliberately: pale cream maple streaked with grey, blue, brown, and tan markings that travel across the grain in patterns that are entirely organic and entirely unique to each piece.

I want to be clear about what this is, because it matters: the figuring in ambrosia maple is not a defect. Traditional timber grading would reject it as such, which is part of why this wood is not commonly used. No two ambrosia maple spoons share the same pattern.

The wood itself retains all the properties of hard maple — one of the densest and most durable domestic hardwoods in North America. The beetle trails are purely cosmetic. A cooking spoon made from ambrosia maple is as strong and hard-wearing as any maple spoon I make, with a surface story that no other wood can tell.

About English Walnut

I work with black walnut regularly. It is one of my most requested woods and one I understand well. But English walnut — Juglans regia, the walnut of European fine furniture and gunstock making — is a different material entirely, and the difference shows in everything I carve from it.

Where American black walnut has depth and drama, English walnut has complexity. The grain is more varied, the figure more pronounced, the tonal range wider — from pale grey-brown to deep chocolate, often within a single piece. English walnut is the wood that European cabinetmakers have prized for centuries precisely because no two boards look the same. A piece of English walnut with strong figure — crotch figure, curl, or burr — is one of the most visually striking things that comes out of a tree.

I source English walnut carefully because it is not commonly available in the United States in the quantities or qualities that fine woodworking requires.The result is a spoon that carries the entire tradition of European fine craftsmanship in its grain.

  • They are related species but distinct in character. American black walnut (Juglans nigra) has a deep, consistent chocolate-brown colour with relatively straight grain — dramatic and reliable. English walnut (Juglans regia) has a wider tonal range, more varied figure, and more complex grain movement — it is less consistent and more interesting. European fine furniture makers have favoured English walnut for centuries for exactly this reason. If you own one of my black walnut spoons, an English walnut piece will look and feel noticeably different.

  • English walnut is not commercially grown for timber in North America at the scale of black walnut or maple. It is primarily a fruit tree here — grown for walnut production — and high-quality figured pieces for fine woodworking are sourced selectively. That scarcity is part of what makes a piece special.

  • Significantly. Some pieces are relatively straight-grained with a wide tonal range. Others — particularly pieces from the crotch of the tree, or with curl or burr figure — are extraordinarily complex and dramatic. I photograph each piece individually so you can see exactly what you are receiving. If you would like to discuss the grain character of a specific piece before purchasing, contact me directly.

  • Yes. Rowan is naturally food-safe and has been used for kitchen and eating utensils for centuries across Northern Europe. I finish every piece with food-grade oil only — no synthetic coatings, lacquers, or varnishes that could contaminate food or flake off over time.Item description

  • Rowan is not commercially grown for timber — it is a smaller tree and not harvested at the scale of walnut, maple, or cherry. Most woodworkers never encounter it. I seek it out specifically because it carves beautifully and produces spoons with a character that more common woods cannot match. Owning one is genuinely unusual.

  • I eat with wooden spoons myself and I find them immediately more comfortable than metal. They do not conduct heat or cold to the lips, they do not scrape against ceramic bowls, and they are quieter at the table. The only practical difference is hand washing — which takes ten seconds and keeps the spoon in good condition for decades.

  • Yes. Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is food-safe and non-toxic. It has been used for small wooden tools and utensils and presents no risk to food preparation. I finish every piece with food-safe linseed oil only.

  • Like all naturally coloured woods, redbud will mellow gradually with light exposure — the initial intensity softens over years into a rich, warm tone. Regular oiling slows this process and keeps the colour vibrant. Many people find the aged patina of a well-used redbud spoon even more beautiful than the original colour.

  • The ambrosia beetle bores into maple trees to lay its eggs, and introduces a fungus that creates mineral staining as it spreads through the wood. The result is the streaked, figured pattern you see in ambrosia maple. The staining is stable, inert, and completely food-safe — it is a natural mineral deposit in the wood fibre, not a biological contaminant.

  • Yes. The mineral staining left by the ambrosia beetle is inert and non-toxic. Ambrosia maple has been used for cutting boards, serving boards, and utensils. I finish every piece with food-grade oil only. There is nothing in this spoon that presents any risk to food preparation.

  • The figuring in ambrosia maple is genuinely three-dimensional — it catches light differently depending on the angle, which means photographs, however good, do not fully capture what the piece looks like in your hand. In my experience, people find the spoon more striking in person than in the photos, not less.

  • Yes. The ambrosia beetle's activity is purely cosmetic — the trails and mineral staining do not affect the structural integrity or hardness of the wood. Ambrosia maple has the same density and durability as standard hard maple, which is one of the toughest domestic hardwoods available.