This is probably one of our most frequently asked questions. Between cherry, walnut, maple, oak, white oak, hickory and honey locust they all have their own unique properties and characteristics that make them desirable to different people. But how exactly is the wood hardness measured? Most wood sources use the Janka scale, which is based on the earlier Brinnel scale. What the Janka scale measures is the amount of force to drive a 11.28 millimeter steel ball to a half inch depth in the wood. The Janka scale ranges from 350 pounds-force for Atlantic White Cedar to 3,680 pounds-force for Ipe...

 You can tell by our name that cherry wood is our favorite, but today I’d like to sing the praises of another gorgeous material you’ll find in our shop: walnut wood. Native to North America, black walnut trees (juglans nigra) can reach heights of more than 100 feet, with trunk diameters of three feet or more. These trees grow throughout most of the eastern half of the United States, but prime walnut needs rich, moist but well-drained soil such as that found in the upper Mississippi River Valley (which happens to be right where we’re located!). The species has been...

At Wild Cherry Spoon Co., we love the planet and we try to be good to it when we can. That’s why we only use local, ethically harvested, sustainable urban lumber to create our products. That also means that when you purchase a Wild Cherry product, you’ve made an environmentally friendly choice, too! As a society, we need to make some big changes to counteract climate change. But on an individual level, sometimes the advice for living a greener life—like buying new, efficient appliances for the kitchen—is out of reach for those of us who rent or don’t have the budget....

As a kid, I hated boxed mac and cheese, and would only eat the noodles buttered—no orange-powder cheese sauce for me! That’s not because I didn’t like cheese; on the contrary, I loved cheese and did not suffer neon-colored cheese powder. I was also the only kid I knew who hated Goldfish snacks. I feel pretty much the same today: love cheese, hate the powdered or reconstituted stuff (white cheddar-flavored Cheez-Its being the main exception to this rule).  When I moved to Wisconsin as a teenager, I discovered real mac and cheese. Also known as baked mac and cheese, or...

Whenever someone asks what inspired the name Wild Cherry Spoon Co., co-owner and chief artisan Tim McGuire replies that cherry wood is his favorite material to carve. This inspired me to do a little research on what makes the wild cherry tree (Prunus serotina) special. Read on to learn about this abundant resource, from its historic use as imitation mahogany, to its possible medicinal properties--and to see some of my favorite images of our cherry wood products!   Prunus serotina goes by many common names, including black cherry, wild cherry, and whiskey cherry. According to Wood Magazine, the species was prevalent...