I often joke that I run on oats. All through the cold months of winter, I look forward to my warm bowl of porridge on dark mornings, before I go out to trudge through the mud to feed the animals. It’s also the first thing my children could cook from scratch unaided. They have their chores in the morning and to have them empty the dishwasher and cook (my) breakfast is always a good start to the day, for meat least…
When they cook the porridge, the children use a spurtle, sometimes called a porridge spoon. In essence, it’s a shaped stick to stir the porridge with, said to cause less clumping than a spoon as the cooked oats won’t easily stick to it. Spurtles have been in use for generations in the UK, particularly in Scotland where they are said to originate, and can still be found in many kitchens to this day. The earliest recorded use was in the 15th century.
There are many designs out there: some have a top to represent a Scottish thistle – especially if made in Scotland – others are tapered; some have larger stirring ends; some come to a point; there are hundreds of types out there. Whatever design you choose, I should warn you that you should only use a spurtle in your right hand and stir in a clockwise direction when cooking your morning oats – to do it the other way is to invoke the devil! Which may be a bit much at breakfast time.
This project only uses a small amount of wood so it’s a perfect justification for that ever-growing off cut pile in the corner of the workshop. It’s also ideal to sell at craft fairs or to turn as part of a simple demonstration at shows. Make sure whichever wood you choose is food-safe. I made a small batch of these and used beech, sycamore and ash. The sycamore was particularly sweet to turn.
Spurtle plan
Equipment
Materials
• 300mm 25mm x 25mm blanks
Tools & equipment
- PPE & RPE
- Tablesaw (optional – to dimension the blank)
- Lathe
- Spindle roughing gouge
- Skew chisel
- Small spindle gouge
- 6mm parting tool
- 2mm parting tool
- Sandpaper of various grits
