Scrap Wood Project- Spurtles for Oatmeal

Hi Everyone,

I got an email from a friend of mine asking me to make spurtles for a Christmas project she and her daughter have in mind a little later in December. As this is a Scottish kitchen implement, I'm going to dedicate today's posting to my lovely mate Alison in Glasgow (hey there lass!).

If you Google the word spurtle you'll see that it's basically a turned wooden rod with a handle that is used for stirring oatmeal. You can make it out of any type of wood and the example today is made out of a 1 /12" x 1 1/2" x 16" long piece of mineral stained poplar.

Here's the photos:

Here is a photo of the poplar on the lathe. I'm going to take the roughing gouge and turn it into a cylinder. The grain runs from right to left:

Here's the cylinder. I've marked off about an inch on either side as this marks off the ends for turning. The spurtle will be about 14" long:

Close up of the markings for the handles. You can make the handle any design you wish just as long as it's smooth and doesn't have any sharp protrusions that can hurt your hand when you're stirring:

Here's the handle I've turned. The knob on the top will be rounded over so it won't be uncomfortable to use:

And here is the whole thing, shaft and handle. I sanded it with 120 and 180 grit paper:

And here it is with a layer of salad bowl varnish on it:

And here is a photo of the spurtle in a sauce pan. It shouldn't be too short so it could be used in a larger pot but it shouldn't be so long that it flips out of the pan if you let go of it:

This took me about 30 minutes to make this afternoon and if you're good at spindle turning, you can probably turn these out by the millions and sell them to Scotland and retire...ok, maybe not but you get the idea.

I'm going to try this out for a few days in my kitchen and if the design and finish work out I'll make 4 for my friends.

More later,

VW