I make many different wooden cooking utensils. Spurtles, spreaders, spatulas, spoons, scrapers, salad sets, snack servers, potato mashers, muddlers, forks, honey dippers, ladles, rolling pins, cheese boards, etc. etc. etc. Each piece is individually crafted. I use primarily black cherry, maple, birch and black walnut because of the wide variation of color and grain and because they are very beautiful and durable woods when finished. These wooden utensils can be used on non stick cookware. All of the pieces are treated with mineral oil and beeswax. Both are foodsafe. The mineral oil replenishes the oils in the wood and the beeswax tends to slow down the drying out process. Never put a wooden utensil in the dishwasher. Any wooden utensil will tend to dry out and become a little rough with exposure to water. You can recondition it by scrubbing it briskly with a scotch brite pad or fine grit sand paper when completely dry. Then wash it thoroughly with hot soapy water, rinse and dry. Then coat the piece liberally with mineral oil and let sit for a few hours or overnight. Wipe off the excess oil and it is ready for use.
Most of the utensils are made from wood purchased from a specialty wood shop. These pieces are too small or have color defects or knots to be utililized for their projects and may otherwise be discarded. This may determine the size of my final project. e.g. Some potato mashers are different sizes because the pieces of wood available are not of uniform dimensions. |