Make a Pallet Wood Spatula Cooking Utensil
Welcome back to the workshop! Today I made a pallet wood spatula cooking utensil! Pallet wood projects are very popular and I completely understand why. Pallets are usually free, and readily available to anyone around the world. Add to that, their rustic qualities and you have a recipe for creativity without breaking anyone’s budget!
Today I bring you a really cool project — a pallet wood spatula made from free pallet wood, using a few tools in my workshop.
I started by cutting a piece of the 2×4 pallet runner to length at about 14 inches long. This would give about a 13 inch long cooking utensil once the ends were trimmed off.
Over on my Nova Comet II Lathe, I mounted the board and began turning it to shape using my 7/8″ Roughing Gouge — the only lathe tool used for this project. I formed the handle and the transition to the flat part of the pallet wood spatula, then sanded it to 320 grit all while on the wood lathe before taking the utensil off and moving on to the band saw.
I have an old Craftsman 10″ Band Saw that is no longer made, but very similar to a WEN 3962 Band Saw. It’s served me well for over 6 years. I took the utensil and trimmed one edge of the head (the flat part of the spatula) to get a flat face to then turn the utensil on its side and slice out the waste and form the thin curve of the spatula head. This is always a little tricky to ride that fine line between taking off enough material and not taking off too much!
After roughing the spatula head, I took it over to my bench top belt sander, again an old one, but similar to this Shop Fox W1855 with a cast iron base, and smoothed out the spatula head and edges to my liking. The belt sander is extremely useful for making quick work of the shaping of the spatula.
After sanding, it was a matter of working my way up through the grits by hand to 320 grit to get a nice smooth utensil. I finished the utensil with a good soaking of Walrus Oil – a food safe finish, and it was done.
This was a fun project and one that was relatively easy to make in an hour in my small workshop. Hope you enjoyed it!
Be sure to check out the Stuff I Use in my workshop and home!
