About me

Myron Unrau

spoon carver – collector of wooden possibilia

I am Canadian. I live in a small village in the south/west corner of Germany on the borders of Switzerland and France.

Inked. In case I misplace my passport
Vineyards behind to both sides and up behind the village. Looking north. France is behind me. Switzerland is on my right.
Not our house but this what a spoon carvers dream house might look like. You would not be wrong to imagine a scene like this when you read or hear or read the term “The Black Forest”.

I carve spoons mostly; not my full time gig but pretty much daily. And this spoon carving journey began six years ago. Had anyone told me then that I would still be carving spoons today, I would have thought them nuts.

I can show you the very first spoon I carved. Now I do not think that carving is the proper term to use to describe what I did to shape that “thing” because it looks oh so clumsy and embarrassingly ugly too. But back then I had no real idea of just how addicting, meditatively therapeutic and satisfying this craft would become.

My first clumsy spoon

I love the process and most of my Instagram share images are taken during the axing and roughing out stage. From sourcing the green wood, to the detailed knife work and finishing touches, I am hopelessly hooked on spoon carving.

I have always carved something. From a sharp sticks or an oak door, relief carvings and walking sticks. Blades & Wood. Always.

Willow serving spoon with sheathed sloyd carving blade

The green woods I use are locally sourced. I am constantly on the lookout for felled fruit trees in fields and orchards. I also visit surrounding forests and forage fallen trees for interesting and usable pieces. The local yard/garden waste depot can occasionally be a good source of freshly cut green wood. Not to forget, the local arborist. I have worked with a few and value that resource.

Using a Nic Westermann twca cam hook to hollow a spoon bowl

All of my spoons, birds or whales are shaped and carved using hand tools. From the hand saw that cuts the rounds from a log or lengths of a branch, a froe and wooden club to split my rounds into billets to shaping the billets into spoon blanks with my carving axes, and then to carve a useful utensil using various straight or hooked carving knives. Makers bliss when everything works out.

Shaping a new monster beech splitting maul with my Gransforsbruk carving axe

It is very satisfying to repurpose fallen woods into items that will engage us in their use and utility. It is good to use wood. Wood feels good. Using my hands feels good too. There were a few years I engaged with digital work. It was hard on the eyeballs. It wasn’t real. Analog is real. I work with wood chips, not pixels.

I make by hand. Here is one of my most important tools, my left hand. This one does the grunt work and is rewarded with slices and cuts, Band-Aids, infections and the occasional stitches.
My daily eater, the spoon I eat most everything with. It is pear wood and has been in regular use since the summer of 2017

I hope you find something that piques your interest on this site.

If you read this far, thanks kindly.

Things I carve:
  • Kitchen utensils
  • Wooden birds