HOW TO WHITTLE WOODEN SPOONS

Sailors on long voyages would pass the time whittling spoons. In the first of our ‘lockdown projects’ series, we learn how

- ROBIN GATES

Among sailors whittling away the hours on long voyages or waiting for the tide to turn, as many are doing now, there is a long tradition of carving wooden spoons. Well-preserved examples have been recovered from both Henry VIII’s carrack Mary Rose, which sank off Spithead in 1545, and Swedish warship Vasa, which went down in Stockholm harbour in 1628. These spoons were found having been trapped inside the vessels, the majority having floated free – because, as with the wooden boat so also with the wooden spoon, the natural buoyancy of the material stands greatly in its favour. Who hasn’t lost a metal spoon tipped over the side with the washing up water? Nobody? Err, me neither, but should you lose a wooden spoon at sea, the finder may well be grateful for the useful flotsam. Picking up where the 17th-century matelot left off, here’s how to make unsinkable spoons using the simplest of hand tools and free wood.