Use this straining spoon to pull boiled potatoes out of their water, scoop up a tortellini to test its tenderness, or any other basic cooking task that a calls for a skimmer. Each spoon is handmade in a small Indiana wood workshop from locally-sourced maple wood. The closed grain of the maple wood means that the spoon will not absorb any flavors or bacteria during use. To make the spoon, a pattern is drawn on a block of wood, and then the tool is carved out, the bowl is shaped on a lathe, the holes are drilled in, then the final spoon is buffed in a series of steps. 

Hand wash and dry your spoon. Be sure to wash it directly after cooking with vegetable oil, as it can make the utensil sticky. If desired, you may buff the wood with a fine 400-grit sandpaper, and condition with mineral oil. 

In the early 1970s, John Whetstone felt called to become a woodworker. At the time, he was employed as in the delivery department of a natural gas service, and noticed an unused band saw on the porch of one of the homes on his delivery route. He offered to buy it, and then began teaching himself woodworking skills, and acquiring more equipment. Shortly after, he became a full-time, all purpose woodworker, and was producing furniture, among other things. In the early 1990s, Whetstone answered a classified advertisement calling for a producer of wooden kitchen tools, and Whetstone Woodenware was born. Whetstone has been steadily making wooden kitchen tools for the past two decades, and now has 12 skilled artisans working with him. “It’s great to be making a product that is enduring,” says Whetstone. “People come up to me who have been using the same spoon for over 25 years, and it’s just pleasing to make something that becomes a part of people’s lives.”