Synopsis: Take a few hours away from complicated projects and carve a spoon. It’s a great way to brush up on hand skills, use green wood, and create gifts that will win appreciation from any home cook. Chairmaker Peter Galbert forms his spoons with a few simple tools: hatchet, drawknife, sloyd knife, hooked knife. He prefers to get the wood from the crook in a tree where a branch grew from the trunk. At this intersection, the fibers naturally bend, so you can make a spoon that curves at the neck yet has long grain running from the top of the handle to the tip of the bowl.

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As a chairmaker, I enjoy complex projects involving many parts and many skills. But on occasion I find myself just wanting to let a walk in the woods and a quiet task take my day, and I make a spoon. Making…