With all the spoons I make I try to use wood that would have no other purpose than to be chipped or burnt, sometimes its friends who pass on bits to me after cutting down or managing their trees and sometimes I have a chat with anyone I see when out walking who is doing any felling. Most of the time it ends with me getting a branch or a log to put in the back of the car to take home and work on.

When I do make the spoons I follow a simple process working the wood into a spoon with simple hand tools. I use a large mallet and a tool called a Froe to be able to split the wood exactly where I want to make the best use of the grain and any colouring the wood has from the heart and sap parts of it. I then use a side axe to shape the wood into a rough spoon shape, the side axe allowing me more control and finesse over the cuts I make. After that I use a simple craft knife to more finely shape the wood and follow that with a crook knife to hollow out the bowl of the spoon.