Love Spoon Wood Carving Kit for Beginners

A courtship spoon, and two knives to cut it

The love spoon is a courtship gift with roots in Celtic culture: the oldest surviving examples, carved in Wales, date from the 1600s, and the knots and symbols on the handle carried specific meanings. They are still given at weddings, anniversaries and births. This kit carves one.

The blank arrives pre-cut, so the outline is done. What remains is the handle detail and the bowl.

Why this one needs two tools

A spoon cannot be carved with a straight knife alone. The kit includes a C13 for the outside shape and an SK1 spoon knife with a hooked blade for hollowing the bowl, which is a different cutting motion entirely: a pulling sweep from the rim inward rather than a push along the grain.

Both blades are 1066 carbon steel hardened to 57–59 HRC, with ash handles.

What is in the box

C13 carving knife, SK1 spoon knife, a pre-cut basswood spoon blank, a carving pattern, a leather strop with polishing compound, five sheets of sandpaper in assorted grits, cut-resistant tape, a pencil, a printed booklet and a video tutorial – and an adhesive bandage, which is the manufacturer being honest.

The hollowing is where the time goes

The outside shape comes quickly. The bowl does not: it is removed in thin sweeps with the hook blade, working around the rim rather than down into the centre, and the last few millimetres of depth take longer than everything before them.

Five sheets of sandpaper are supplied because a spoon is handled rather than looked at, and the finish has to be felt rather than seen.

If you want the harder version of the same idea – a cup rather than a spoon, in walnut rather than basswood – that is the Kuksa kit.

Safety

This set contains tools with sharp edges. Handle them carefully, and use each tool only for the purpose it was designed for. Recommended from 14, with adult supervision for younger carvers. In carving the blunt knife is the dangerous one, since it has to be forced.

Manufacturer and EU responsible operator

Manufactured by BeaverCraft, Ukraine.
Responsible economic operator in the European Union under Regulation (EU) 2023/988: BeaverCraft GmbH, Mörsenbroicher Weg 191, 40470 Düsseldorf, Germany.