Finnish spoon design - plans

A very nice chap in Finland sent these over to me the other week.

The scans are from the wartime "Kotiteollisuus" ["Home industry"] periodical. Designed by the The Finnish Defence Forces during the Continuation War's trench warfare period started in December 1941. The soldiers had a lot of spare time, and made these and axe handles then sold them to a government monopoly and again to civilian markets. They were also made for themselves, and to be sent home, or to be traded for tobacco etc.

They are to be made out of high-quality birch wood

The "No 1" spoon in the above picture should be made either 20 or 29 cm in length and the bowl should be either 5.5 or 7.0 cm in diameter.

"No 2" is either 33 or 36 cm and 7.5 and 8.5 cm.

"No 3" is either 33 or 36.5 cm and 7.5 or 9.0 cm.

"No 4" is either 36.5 or 43 cm and 11.0 or 13.0 cm.

I think in order of spoons that they are an eating spoon, serving, cooking, and ladle but like all spoons there's a lot of cross over in duties. I think the larger of the two choices in sizes would be handy for cooking for large groups in a fixed camp, which is just what I intend to do in just under two weeks for a group of students on a course I'm running. The cooking spoon and ladle will be great for the soup I'm cooking.

This design by Private Juho Tirilä won a prize in a competition among the Finnish soldiers in 1942.  

I wonder if servicemen and women would be keen to take up spoon carving these days. I think it might help to ease the stress of what they have to go through a little.

I'll be making some copies when I get time to see how they work out, although I'm happy with my own spoons at the moment, its fun to try these things out.

Let me know if you have tried them out yourself, as I've just had permission from the Finish Army to post these up.

Happy spooning!
Paul.