I was trying to close the upper portion of a window a couple of days ago and couldn't quite reach it. I grabbed my workshop spoon, paused for a moment, and then pushed up on the window with the back of the handle. I gave it a good shove and half of the bowl split off.
I was never satisfied with that spoon, which is why it never made it out of the workshop. But I immediately saw new value in it. I planed the handle down to the center line and now I have a perfect longitudinal section straight down the middle of the spoon which illustrates a couple of basic points of spoon design.
 |
| Notice the shape of the bowl. The depth is in the back. |
If you look closely at the pictures above you can see that the depth of the spoon's bowl is toward the back. The front portion of the bowl is like a ramp leading down into that depth. Notice how flat the front of the bowl is. This shape, with the depth in the back and the front relatively flat, holds a good scoop of food while still allowing your upper lip to slide all the way along the bottom of the bowl and sweep that food into your mouth. When the shape is right, eating from a spoon is a satisfying experience. When the shape isn't right, the edges of the spoon dig into your lips and there is a morsel of food that has escaped your lip left in the bottom of the bowl after each bite.
 |
| Outside of the dissected spoon. |
The other important detail to notice from this spoon dissection is how the thickest portion of the spoon relates to the depth of the bowl. From the side I like a spoon to be an arrangement of sweeping curves. This spoon was carved from a piece of straight lilac, so the curves are gentle and when you are not looking at them the spoon has the appearance of being flat. My experience is that when a spoon is truly flat, it looks dead. A few gentle curves along the length as the handle swells to the depth of the bowl gives the spoon a more lively look. The neck of the spoon is the same thickness as the deepest part of the bowl, from the neck the thickness sweeps away into the thin part of the handle where the spoon is held.
 |
| Apple eating spoon of similar design. |
Since I never really cared for that spoon I didn't want to post pictures of it all alone for the spoon nuts of the world to see, so I went through our spoon mug and pulled out a couple of old favorites. As you look at the pictures think about how the different parts of the spoon (the bowl, the neck, the handle, and the finial) relate to each other. Or maybe you feel that they don't relate to each other. Looking at the shapes of the spoons like that helps to build your idea of a pleasing spoon.
These are a few that I enjoy.
 |
| Sweet birch serving spoon. |
 |
| Rhododendron eating spoon. |
 |
| Steambent paper birch eating spoon. |
