Spoon Care
If you are like me, you will love these handmade spoons, or any other wood spoons you own, and you would like them to last a long time. My mom had a spoon we used for everything, but sometime in the past few years she has had to throw it away. I think it was from water damage. Here is how you can avoid parting with that favorite wood spoon, bowl, cutting board, etc.
Hand wash only. Soap and water is good but the dishwasher and or soaking spoons in water too long or too often will cause wood to draw in water and will eventually crack.
When spoon feels rough, sand with fine grit sandpaper (between 320-600), or a paper bag (which works but will take longer), or a Scotch Brite pad, to give it that smooth like new feel.
When spoon is dry, oil with food safe oil. I have been using flax seed oil, many people use mineral oil or another mix of oils and wax. Vegetable or olive oil is not recommended unless the utensils are used frequently. These oils may cause wood to go rancid. I have heard walnut oil is also a good option, but not everyone recommends it as it because of nut allergies.
From my experience, when using a soup spoon for daily eating, the bowl of the spoon needs frequent oiling. It may need less oiling if, after oiling, to let it dry a few weeks before using again. In that case, you may want two spoons to go between.
If you have burn marks or damage other than rough wood, you may need to use a rough grit (60-80) sand paper to take it out and move up to finer and finer sand papers (100, 150, 320, 400, 600) to give it that satin smooth feel again.
Similarly, if you have a spoon that you found randomly and you would like to try to use it but don’t trust the cleanliness, here is a web page about how to clean and disinfect spoons: wikiHow.
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