# best wood for kitchen utensils ??



## Tusses (5 Aug 2008)

like spoons,spatulas, tongues etc etc

which is the best to use ?

it needs to be ok unfinished and with lots of washing up !

oh - and splinter free


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## Good Surname or what ? (5 Aug 2008)

Sycamore ???

Don't really know ,just guessing. It's fine grained and used for chopping boards.


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## DaveL (5 Aug 2008)

I think you will find that Beech is widely used for these.


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## Tusses (5 Aug 2008)

I thought a lot of it looked like beech.

as for Sycamore ? I'll look into it . wouldn't have been my 1st guess though !


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## Alan Smith (5 Aug 2008)

definitely Sycamore.

Many many years ago when I was at my then local saw mill to pick up some lime the foreman gave me a great lump of sycamore. I asked him what it was used for and he said that all the sycamore they could get went to a local wooden spoon manufacturer.

Having got the stuff home I was therefore inspired to earn some brownie points and bandsawed out a load of spatulas and spurtles (any of you sassenachs know what a spurtle is??) To the best of my knowledge all the bits I made are still in use 20 years later and certainly in my kitchen one spatula in particular gets daily use.


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## cornucopia (5 Aug 2008)

definatley sycamore- i think old butchers blocks use to be sycamore


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## Tusses (5 Aug 2008)

Sycamore seems to be the most popular and one I wouldn't have considered !

I would have guessed beech !


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## Racers (5 Aug 2008)

Hi,

Spurtle, porridge/stirring stick, one of my favorite words.


Pete


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## wizer (5 Aug 2008)

I love a good spurtle


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## Grinding One (5 Aug 2008)

Here I do them out of Hard Rock Maple,tops of cutting boards too.


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## wizer (5 Aug 2008)

How are you planning on making them Rich?


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## big soft moose (5 Aug 2008)

beech is popular for chopping blocks as it has natural anti bacterial properties - however fresh un spalted beech can be a puppy to turn

therefore any of the acers (sycamore, maples etc), lime , or fruitwoods such as apple are suitable as they are clean woods which will not taint food.

however no wooden product will respond well to being soaked in washing up for a long time.


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## Richard Findley (5 Aug 2008)

Hi guys,

Usually any pale wood is good for food use. Sycamore, Beech, Maple, Hornbeam and Ash (although a little open grained) are all good for this. Wood such as Oak with a high Tannin content can stain and turn black after contact with some foods.







This is one of my Sycamore chopping boards.

A finish need not be applied if you're going to use it soon yourself but if you want to sell whatever you've made then several coats of some kind of food safe finish are required:






Hope this helps,

Richard


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## Digit (5 Aug 2008)

Lime?

Roy.


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## woodbloke (6 Aug 2008)

This sort of stuff is called 'treen' I believe, I've got a book at home where some really good stuff (ladles, spoons, serving spatulas etc) have been made out of odd lumps of fruit wood such as apple, pear and I recollect seeing something made from juniper, finished with olive or a veg oil of some sort (We've got some salad servers at home made from olive wood and some food mixer thingies made from Koa) Beech, sycamore or maple are the standard timbers to use but I reckon they're a bit bland. Provided that wooden utensils aren't put in the dishwasher(...beech spoons tend to warp  ) then I think that any attractive timber could be used, provided it's not toxic (ie greenheart) - Rob


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