Few Bits

My friend Melanie (see her blog here) told me about a Wooden Cooking Utensil Workshop at the KnowHow Shop and I jumped at the chance to take it this past weekend.

The class was taught by a really nice woman named Linda who showed us some inspiration pieces.

I saw a dough cutter on the table and decided to make that as well as the spoon I already had planned.  We each chose a piece of wood from blocks of walnut or cherry and started designing our utensils. I chose cherry.

I had found this photo online and decided to make something similar to the middle one.  I like that you can scrape the edge of a pan with the straight edge and use the other side for tasting.

My starting design:

I decided to make only one spoon and a dough cutter.  I could have made more spoons with the wood I was given, but if Project Runway has taught me anything, it’s to make 2 things impeccably and not 5 things half-assed.

Melanie designing her spoons:

After the designs were done, the spoons were milled out by a robot CNC Router.

We used the bandsaw to cut out our designs then onto the many sanders in the shop.  What followed was lots and lots of hand sanding. Melanie made like 7 spoons and made me look bad. Here she is in her “Make It Work” moment:

After everything was sanded to smooth perfection, Linda showed us how to make our own food safe wood finish.  My lips were super chapped that day and I was also using it as a lip balm.  Here’s the recipe:

1 pound block of beeswax, broken up into chunks

2 16 oz bottles of mineral oil

1 14 oz bottle of coconut oil

fresh rosemary sprigs

Put all ingredients in a double boiler to melt and mix thoroughly.  Put in glass containers and let cool.

My spoon and dough cutter before finishing:

My spoon before finishing and after:

Here are the the other utensils made by the class.  Pretty great, right?

We were each sent home with our new wooden utensils, a jar of wood finish, and a sense of accomplishment.

The people at the Know How Shop are great and I met some really nice people in the class.  A great way to spend the weekend!

The KnowHow shop offers memberships as well so you can use their equipment for bigger projects.  So you may see them come up again in future posts!