Spoon Stamping: It’s About Time!

My friend and I got together again and we stamped spoons. This was so much fun.

I have seen different stamped spoons over the years. Some have been made with herb names on them and stuck in pots while others have been stamped with words of wisdom or encouragement and hung as wind chimes. Either way you need to round up some tools and supplies and materials to get started.

Things you will need:

• a hammer
• old sock or soft cotton rag
• something to pound on (not the kitchen table or granite countertop!)
• sharpie marker
• black sharpie marker
• set of steel alphabet stumping set

Not all types of spoons will be easy to work with. Look for silver-plated spoons when you start searching. The best places to look are at garage sales and estate sales, but you can sometimes find them at thrift stores too. They pound out flat without a lot of effort, and even sue silver-plated spoons will be easier than others. I have also found that you can pound out stainless steel spoons, but it sure takes a lot more work.

Step one really is flattening your spoon. I found a metal plate in our shop that worked out great as a surface to pound on. I could set it on the cement floor and it provided a solid and smooth surface. If you pound directly on the cement your spoon will pick up any surface textures like bumps or dents in the surface of the cement.

Cover your spoon with a rag. I used an old sock and put the spoon inside it. Place your spoon rounded side up and start to hammer keeping your hammer as level as you can. I used a rather large sledge-type hammer, but my friend used a regular flat-headed hammer. Keep in mind that if you hit the spoon with the edge of your hammer (and not the flat surface), you can leave a dent and you are looking for the smoothest flattened spoon you can make.

Make evenly spaced dots to use as guides where you want to stamp you letter

At this point you need to figure out what you want to use your stamped spoons for and then you can decide what word you will stamp. Do you have a pot of basil that needs a marker or would you rather have a word of inspiration like “grow” or “live” in that pot of basil?

Draw dots on you spoon, evenly spaced, one for each letter of your word.

You are now ready to stamp your letters.

make sure you spoon is completely on a flat surface before you start to stamp

Make sure your spoon is level and flat on the surface and you can start stamping your letters. It is up to you if you want to start in the center of your word and work your way out in each direction, or start with the first letter.

Hold the stamp as steady as you can and use your hammer to strike the stamp a few times using steady force. It will take a bit of time to figure out how hard you need to hit the stamp and how many times. I started with 3 strikes and it seemed to work well. Once you pull the stamp away it isn’t real easy to realign it to stamp again, it usually is off just a bit and you will notice it when you try to stamp again in the same spot.

stamp one letter per dot

I also noticed that the “I” doesn’t take as many strikes. It is like a mini chisel and will make a deeper indent then the rest of the letters, so keep that in mind. You don’t need to hit it as hard or as many times to get the same depth of an impression.

Once you have stamped all your letter, go back and fill each one if with the black marker. You can now polish the spoon with your rag or sock. This will shine up the spoon and also remove the marker dots you made, but will leave the marker in the recess of the stamped letters giving them some definition.

fill in the letter using your black sharpie

All of my herbs, except basil, are in the ground so I had a hard time thinking of what I wanted to stamp on my spoons.

My friend kept telling me to keep stamping, and I had to keep thinking of what to stamp. We would get side-tracked and off on different subjects and I kept telling her to focus on the stamping. I finally picked up the hammer and started stamping and wouldn’t tell her what I was stamping until it was done and polished up and then I help it up and said “F O C U S!” We both laughed. Then I put it in my hair and we laughed again. Since I cut my hair and donated it last fall, it still isn’t quite long enough o stay in a bun yet.

I now carry to spoon with my when I get together with my friend and pull it  out and say “focus” when we get off course. There are so many thing we want to make and try and do that we get off course often.

"focus" in my hair

Stamping these spoons was a lot of fun and I enjoyed doing it. It will be fun to make a few more stamped spoons to give as gifts.

Have you ever tried stamping spoons?

Sincerely, Emily