The Folk School Radio Hour - August 2025 - Driftless Spoon Gathering

Julie Tomaro chats with Tom Wheeler, Terry Beck and Jarrod Torkelson about the upcoming spoon carving get together as well as green wood working, craft and the religion of tool sharpening.

Join us for our 13th Annual Driftless Spoon Gathering from Friday, September 12th through Sunday, September 14th.

A Spoon Gathering is an event for spoon carvers—and would-be spoon carvers or people curious about spoon carving—and green woodworkers of all sorts. We get together to carve spoons, talk carving and carving tools, share techniques and tools and carving wood, trade or sell spoons or tools.

A beginners’ spoon carving class happens first thing Saturday morning, with carving knives and wood available, for no extra charge. (There's no extra charge for any event at the Gathering!) Demonstrations of axe skills, sharpening techniques, detailing, etc. get organized on both Saturday & Sunday according to interests and available expertise.

Two special events are scheduled: a potluck Saturday night with live music and a Spoon Pass at noon on Sunday. Never been to a Spoon Pass? Just bring a spoon blank and your carving tools. We’ll sit in a circle and carve on a spoon blank for 5 minutes, then pass the blank to the person on your left. At the end of an hour or so, you’ll go away from the Circle with the last spoon you carved on. (Worried you won’t have a blank? Someone will knock one out for you.)

The 13th Annual Driftless Folk School Spoon Gathering will be held in our usual place: the beautiful 4 acre Village Park in La Farge, Wisconsin where we have all three shelters reserved for the weekend.