About the Maker
The slow work of one spoon at a time
Mr. E makes spoons because a spoon is the tool you reach for most, and most spoons are made badly — too thick, too rough, too disposable. A good spoon is none of those things.
The Mark of Mr. E
Derby Line · Vermont
The workshop sits in Derby Line, in Orleans County, where Vermont thins out into Canada — the part of the state people call the Northeast Kingdom. It’s quiet country, cold winters, and hardwood that grows slow and tight-grained. That’s the wood that makes a spoon worth keeping.
Every spoon starts as a blank cut from a locally felled tree — sugar maple, black walnut, cherry, birch — dried slow, then worked by hand and by eye. No two come out identical. The bowl is carved thin enough to feel responsive in the pan; the handle is shaped to sit in the hand rather than fight it.
Each piece is finished in food-safe walnut oil and beeswax. The spoons don’t get fuzzy with use the way cheap softwood ones do. They don’t need babying — wash them by hand, dry them off, and they’ll darken and deepen for decades. That’s the point. A spoon from this bench is meant to be the one your grandchildren reach for.
How They’re Made
Three things that don’t change
Local hardwood
Maple, walnut, cherry, and birch felled within a short drive of the Derby Line workshop, then dried slow.
One at a time
Shaped, scraped, and finished by hand. No batches, no production line — the next blank is clamped only when the last spoon is done.
Built to outlive you
Food-safe walnut oil and beeswax finish. Tight grain that won’t fuzz. A spoon meant to be handed down, not replaced.
“The tools are simple. The patience is the whole job.”
See what’s on the bench
The collection changes as spoons are finished. Browse what’s available, or write about a custom piece.
Derby Line, Vermont · Orleans County · Northeast Kingdom