Maximilian Neukäufler

AT

Spoons? Why the heck? 

When I got my first pocket knife at my 6th birthday, all stars aligned for myself to make about every non-lethal mistake with a blade you could think of.
Spending my childhood in the Austrian alps you’d find me roaming around the rivers and woods with my little Hazel bow in a loincloth… Yes… Loincloth… Making my own tools and gear, reading what I could and dreaming of adventures.

I was fascinated with distant cultures, epic landscapes and tragic hero’s.
My passion for knives and axes didn’t subside when I grew up but I wanted to further study and use them so eventually I discovered spooncarving and started my journey back when there was hardly any information available.

My path did lead me through studying archaeology and biology but all the while I lived all over the world from Brazilian slums to Japanese metropolises and Canadian wilderness to Austrian mountains learning and teaching martial arts, craft and soft skills while growing my knowledge about traditional craft like choosing and using leather, carving anything from canoe paddles to spoons using axe and knife and forging tools and knives.

But why spoons dude?

Carving a simple, yet refined spoon from a log isn’t just a pastime requiring to be in the moment and turning the sound of life off, but it also leaves you with a useful product one can enjoy for a lifetime, uses sustainable, local materials and makes for a never ending source of Christmas gifts… Yup… That’s Probleme is forever gone.
It also teaches you principles of sculpting, shaping, designing, using wood and utilising it’s fibers, using some of the most versatile tools known to us safely and efficiently.
It will force you to be functional and smart in your movements and I always point out that the principles you learn from using axe and knife can be used on a spoon or a house… It is all the same.

On The Spoon Crank I want to continuously introduce you to products and teachings I’ve developed over more than a decade that will make your experience carving spoons, kuksas and bowls and your living skills richer all together while giving you the confidence to pick up challenges in craft and life because you can trust your “tools”.

And really, try out loincloths… Way underrated.

by Maximilian Neukäufler

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