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spurtle design? - toolmiser - 03-13-2021

My wife asked me to make a "spurtle".  I've looked online and didn't really find a design.  (BTW it seems like there is a round one and a kind of flat one with rounded ends like a paddle)  She wants the paddle version.

If you have something you could share I would appreciate it.  Some look kind of curved but I hope to do flat with a round handle.

Let me know what you have experience with.

What is a good wood to use?  I guess something with closed grain like walnut, cherry, maple.


RE: spurtle design? - R Clark - 03-14-2021

I didn't know that there's a type of spurtle that has a flat end.

Like this?

[attachment=34085]

Was piddling around in the shop a couple years ago and turned the long round one.  Sycamore.

LOML got the other one from somewhere last fall; don't know what it's made from.  Any straight-grained piece of close pore wood should do, I think.


RE: spurtle design? - AHill - 03-14-2021

The flat ended spurtles usually have long and narrow flat ends.  Kind of like a narrow spatula stretched out.  I have this narrow spatula shown below (purchased) that I have found to be extremely useful.  The difference is that the grip end would be round.

Littledeer brand - sold by Lee Valley.
[Image: EV359R-mapleware-narrow-spatula-right-handed-f-10.jpg]


RE: spurtle design? - MichaelMouse - 03-14-2021

(03-13-2021, 08:27 PM)toolmiser Wrote: My wife asked me to make a "spurtle".  I've looked online and didn't really find a design.  (BTW it seems like there is a round one and a kind of flat one with rounded ends like a paddle)  She wants the paddle version.

If you have something you could share I would appreciate it.  Some look kind of curved but I hope to do flat with a round handle.

Let me know what you have experience with.

What is a good wood to use?  I guess something with closed grain like walnut, cherry, maple.

Bear in mind what the traditional spurtle was designed for - stirring the porridge.   Back in the day, a sticky, thick, almost dough-like mess.  Thus the handled dowel type.  Less drag as direction changed.  

If you're after a spatula, make a spatula.  Whatever she wants.  I use cherry or yellow birch.


RE: spurtle design? - Bucko - 03-14-2021

Plenty of them show up on an Etsy search, here’s one to view.


RE: spurtle design? - paulmaine - 03-17-2021

Wikipedia has a definition with pictures "a wooden Scottish kitchen tool, dating from the fifteenth century, that is used to stir  porridge, soups, stews, and broths ".   I made one from hard maple as another book recommended and it worked well. You see advertising today selling spurtles as wooden kitchen tools of just about any design can make a profit on.


RE: spurtle design? - stoppy - 03-17-2021

I’ve been seeing them advertised on TV as a set, remembered the name 
Big Grin.

https://www.buyspurtle.com/


RE: spurtle design? - toolmiser - 03-17-2021

(03-17-2021, 08:17 PM)stoppy Wrote: I’ve been seeing them advertised on TV as a set, remembered the name 
Big Grin.

https://www.buyspurtle.com/

That is what she saw and wants me to make.  I guess I work cheap, or need to justify tool purchases made over the last 30+ years.


RE: spurtle design? - R Clark - 03-18-2021

(03-17-2021, 08:43 PM)toolmiser Wrote: That is what she saw and wants me to make.  I guess I work cheap, or need to justify tool purchases made over the last 30+ years.

Looks like what Mom used to correct behavior when I was a kid.  Now it has an ancient Scottish name?


RE: spurtle design? - toolmiser - 03-18-2021

My Mom used to threaten us (me) with a yard stick. I was at a paint store a couple years ago, and they handed me a stir stick, and I said my Dad used to call them "paddling sticks", I got a few looks for that comment.