a Spurtle

[Ray7756]

For those of you who are saying " a Spurtle what the fk is that" it is a peculiar Scottish stirring stick, used for making porridge, my wife makes great porridge no lumps nothing just lovely smooth porridge, and she tells me if she stirred it with anything other than a " Spurtle" it Would have lumps in it ??? So who am I to argue, also have been invited to a local arts open workshop type thing and will be showing some pens in the village hall so decided to turn up some Spurtles, ok here is the pick," porridge making is without the fancy tartan ribbon"



Comments welcome
Cheers
Ray

 

[Penpal]

Used to seeing Richard Raffans Spurtles. Love this one it is bespoke and for the most important person in your life,heck every man needs his porridge mate.

Peter.

 

[Ray7756]

Hi Peter
Thanks for the comments, I have made 8 for the display and no 2 are the same, as I have used the one my wife has to mark of the lines for the thistle head ( traditional for a scottish spurtle) and they are all hand turned and to prove that fact I have not been fussy on dimensions apart from approx 1 inch dia about 9 1/2 to 10 long, they are made from pine dowel without a finish so just sanded smooth, after about the 3rd one I found it was a pain trying to Turn the tapered part as it was breaking out, so I used a sheet of 80 grit sandpaper, and boy does that get through the wood and get the taper just fine, I have made 8 in total and still using the same sheet of 80 grit , just finish off with smoother grades to 320
Cheers
Ray

 

[Phil Dart]

A fine spurtle indeed Ray.

I stopped making them in the end - they used to be good sellers for me in all the tourist shops in the area but I worked out that I could easily go out of business spending too much time making spurtles and not enough making other things. I used to dunk mine in a bath of vegetable oil for a couple of munutes them let them stand and drain overnight, before wiping off the excess in the morning.

 

[fortress]

Nice work Ray, you live and learn.

 

[Bill Mooney]

I see you’re stirring it up again. a nice bit of spindle turning Ray.

 

[loftyhermes]

I turn spurtles, amongst other things when demonstrating, here are some I did at Newark on the club stand last year, always fun to say "can you guess what it is yet?".

 

[Ray7756]

I turn spurtles, amongst other things when demonstrating, here are some I did at Newark on the club stand last year, always fun to say "can you guess what it is yet?".View attachment 36856

I like the honey dippers what coating do you use with them???
Cheers
Ray

 

[loftyhermes]

The spurtles and honey dippers are Sycamore and don't have any finish on them. Everything I make that comes into contact with food doesn't have a finish on, I leave that up to the customer to do if they want to.

 

[Ray7756]

The spurtles and honey dippers are Sycamore and don't have any finish on them. Everything I make that comes into contact with food doesn't have a finish on, I leave that up to the customer to do if they want to.

I was thinking of using veg oil as a finish on the spurtles and the Mrs told me not to be stupid, ( after 43 years of marriage she gets away with this) as the first thing she would do is wash the oil of so it did not flavour whatever was being stirred, so decided to go with the expert on these matters, was just wondering about the honey sticking to the wood, ??? Might have to ask the Mrs again, only to be told I am being stupid again
Oh BTW first day of sales,,,, sold out and had to go get some more dowell rods to make more spurtles ,,so happy chappy
I printed out a " history" of the spurtle which i hand out with them,,, it does seem to make a diference,,, so if anyone wants a copy of this pm me and i will send it to you, will send in word format complete with thistle pics ,,, seems to work for me
Cheers
Ray

 

[wm460]

Well done Ray.