The Best Lightweight Camping Spoon is a DIY Wooden Spoon

There’s a kind of joy in using something that you made yourself. On a quiet morning in a remote campsite, when the lake is still and covered with fog, and the stove hisses to life, reaching for a spoon you carved from a birch limb feels more satisfying than reaching for titanium or plastic. While it’s a small thing and a simple tool, it carries the memory of your hands, your time, and the attention it took to bring it into being.

The photo above shows a collection of four camping spoons. From left to right: Light My Fire Spork, a birch spoon I carved myself, a standard kitchen spoon, and a Hilltops Pack Long Handled Titanium spoon. Each has its place, the DIY spoon is the lightest and the best.

For the curious: the Light My Fire weighs 0.4 ounces (11 grams), the DIY comes in at 0.2 ounces (5.6 grams), the kitchen spoon weighs 1 ounce (28 grams), and the long-handled spoon lands at 0.7 ounces (20 grams).

Weight is only part of the story. The DIY spoon is custom made to the shape that I wanted, using birch harvested off a dying tree, finished with walnut oil, and made with my hands — a far better way to spend an evening than doomscrolling. And, because I carved it myself, I feel a connection to it that doesn’t exist with a random plastic spoon bought from an online store.

Carving a DIY camping spoon

To carve a camping spoon, you first need to learn how. I took a bowl carving class where we used axes, adzes, draw knives and gouges to shape a birch round into a usable bowl. During the class, instructor Jon Strom demonstrated how to carve a spoon. Compared to carving a bowl, it seemed simple. I watched a few YouTube videos, bought Spoon: A Guide to Spoon Carving and the New Wood Culture by Barn the Spoon, and I was off to the races.

Since then, I’ve carved maybe a dozen or so spoons. I still I like my early spoons, but my latest feels like it’s the closest to “good.” It takes me about two hours now to carve a spoon, which is much slower than the 15 to 20 minutes that my instructor needed. But I’m getting faster! The hardest part for me is sharpening my hook knife, but with practice I’ve gotten better. A razor sharp knife is key to a smooth spoon without resorting to sandpaper.

Spoon-carving equipment

You don’t need much to start. I had an axe, which wasn’t the perfect carving axe (Gränsfors Bruks Mini Belt Hatchet), but it was just fine. I had a knife, too. I was only missing a hook knife to carve the spoon’s bowl. I bought BeaverCraft’s S01 Wood Spoon Carving Knives Set for around $20. It included a knife, hook knife, polishing compound and a leather strop. The latter two items are used for sharpening. I also picked up a better sharpening stone than I had.

I also found a big round cut from a big pine tree at the local wood-pile dumping area and turned it into a chopping block using diamond willow legs that I harvested myself.

Here’s what I have now:

• Mora Wood Carving Knife 120
• Morakniv Wood Carving Hook Knife 164
• Gränsfors Bruks Mini Belt Hatchet

What does the act of making shape in us?

Part of camping and wilderness travel is skill. The more skills we carry, the more capable we become. Out in the woods, what we know matters far more than what we own.

And, the act of making something with our hands is intrinsically good. Carving a simple wooden spoon teaches real wilderness skills: safe axe handling, precise knife work, patience, attention, and presence. Even if I don’t carry an axe on my trips, the habits of thinking about safety formed while carving translate directly to moving safely through the woods.

Beyond that, making things builds self-reliance. It reminds us that we don’t have to depend on whatever the outdoor industry sells this season. We can shape our own tools, and sometimes those tools will be better, lighter, and always more meaningful.

When outside and surrounded by the water and wind on a remote lake miles from the nearest road, the tools that we make with our own hands feel different. They feel steadier. They feel our own. These tools, even a simple wooden camping spoon, are not better because they save weight or money. They’re better because they shape us while we shape them.

That’s what makes a simple wooden DIY camping spoon the best.