12" American Chestnut Spurtle

This one-of-a-kind spurtle is hand-carved from salvaged American Chestnut, a wood with an extraordinary history. Once one of the dominant trees of eastern forests, the American Chestnut was nearly wiped out by chestnut blight and is considered functionally extinct today. That makes every usable piece of this wood especially meaningful.

I left the handle with a rough-sawn texture, preserving some of the marks from the making process and giving the spurtle a more rustic, straight-from-the-tree feel. The working end is carved smooth, with warm golden color and long, expressive grain running through the chestnut.

At about 12 inches long and 1½ inches wide, its broad, gently tapered shape is especially useful for stirring sourdough starter, mixing dough and batter, folding ingredients together, and scraping the sides and corners of a bowl or pot.

It’s a practical kitchen tool made for regular use, but with a story and texture that make it feel anything but ordinary.