Wooden ladles

Apart from its size, the crucial difference between a ladle, a spoon and a scoop is the fact that its handle is offset, rather than in line with the bowl rim, allowing the ladle to be used to pick up and pour out liquids. Having examined several ladles in my own kitchen, it appears that the angle between the handle and the bowl varies considerably from ladle to ladle. This probably can be accounted for by the variety of shapes of the containers that liquids might be dispensed from. For example, a ladle used to ‘dip’ milk out of a churn, with a narrow neck, would need its handle set at close to 90° to the rim of its bowl, whereas a ladle used to dispense punch from a wide-rimmed punch bowl, or soup from a large saucepan, would function quite effectively with much flatter angle, say about 30° to 40°.

In this article I will be making two styles of ladle; one out of a single solid section and the second out of two pieces of stock. The one-part ladle is going to be quite a challenge for inexperienced turners, so if you have even the slightest doubts about tackling this, work on the two-part ladle until your skills develop. When you feel ready, make a scaled down one-part spoon first, then tackle a one-part ladle.

I haven’t gone into any great detail with the design of the handles, as this is very much a matter of personal taste, so