Spoon Hook Sweeps

Our spoon knives or spoon hooks have been one of our most popular tools for the last several years. We often get questions regarding the difference between our compound sweep and open sweep hooks. Sweep is a term that refers to the curve of the cutting edge. The photo above shows the two side by side. On the left is the compound sweep; the curve starts gradually from the handle and tightens up toward the tip. This is a great all round spoon knife which can carve quickly and make a wide range of hollows from coffee scoops to larger spoons. The open sweep on the right has a much shallower curve along its entire length. This is ideal for carving larger and shallower spoons, and leaves a smoother and more subtle texture. Using an open sweep knife is what finally helped me carve comfortable shallow eating spoons.

For a a long while we offered a choice of long and short handles, and a wide variety of hardwood handles for our spoon knives. This dizzying array of combinations of choices became unwieldily for both us and our customers to navigate. With the current batch of spoon hooks, we eliminated the short handle as well as the choice of wood. From now forward, we will make each batch with only one wood, and announce it on the store listing. We will only make the long handles from now on in order to eliminate a mostly meaningless choice (if you want a short handle, a saw and knife make short work of that job.)