Heston Blumenthals Myrrh Spoons.
It started like any other morning, a cuppa tea in hand, Stanley knife ready, birds waiting to be whittled from a block of wood. Then the phone rang. “Hello,
I Was Asked.
I Don’t Know If You Have Heard Of Him!
“Hello, is that The Bird Whittler?” came a voice, brisk and bright. “I’m Jenifer Forde. I have a rather unusual request… Can you whittle me six spoons from myrrh branches?
They are for someone, I don’t know if you have heard of him—Heston Blumenthal. He’s doing a Christmas show for the BBC.” Right. Not your everyday whittling commission.
Curious and slightly amused, I agreed to meet. A few days later, Jenifer arrived at the studio with a small bag in hand. She introduced herself, then gently tipped its contents onto my desk: a modest pile of myrrh twigs. Not branches. Twigs. The kind you would hesitate to roast a marshmallow on, let alone whittle a spoon from.
She placed a tiny teaspoon beside them. “That’s what we are after,” she said. “Can you make six like this and leave a bit of twig on the end?”
I stared at the twigs. I stared at the spoon. I stared at Jenifer. And then I smiled. Because sometimes, the most unexpected requests lead to the most memorable creations.
Take a look at the myrrh branches below, and join me on the journey where I show what happened and how I went from twig to spoon, destined for a BBC Christmas table.
Heston makes a Christmas feast for Terry Wogan, Kirsty Wark, Dara O'Briain, Rob Brydon, Richard E. Grant, and Sue Perkins.
I have added a link to the video credit to dailymotion.com and thank you for making it still available.
If you want to avoid watching all of the video the main time slots are approx
15.02: Where Heston starts boiling the myrrh.
16.51: About the whittled spoon.
22.10: The spoons being used by Terry Wogan.
22.40 talking about where the spoons had been made. Omar, but now you know The Bird Whittler made them.
Heston Blumenthals Myrrh Spoons.
Here you can see the photos below and a description of what I did to whittle the spoons.
Heston Blumenthal's Myrrh Spoons On My Workbench.
As you can see from the picture above, it would not be an easy job to whittle 6 spoons out of the small amount of wood available. An additional problem that came to light was that the spoon would have to be positioned on the thicker part of the knot, and allowances would also need to be made for the angle of the spoon stem on the thicker part of the branch.
Myrrh Spoons, and having not much wood to work on.
The picture above shows the limited amount of myrrh wood available for the spoon. There was no room for error, and I did not want to phone Jennifer and ask her to go back to Oman to collect some more. It was crucial to continually check the spoon template to minimize mistakes.
Part 2 What happened next to the Heston spoons.
It took me some time to work out where the bowl of the spoon would be best whittled on the branch.
Topside of the Myrrh Spoons
I held the spoon on the top, side, and underside of the myrrh, and then carefully whittled away the wood, making sure to maintain the correct angle of the spoon. In the photo, you can see how much wood is needed to be removed when whittling the spoon.
The underside of Myrrh Spoons
I had to allow for the excess bark to be whittled away, leaving enough wood to keep the size and shape of the spoon.
Part 2 Continues Of The Myrrh Spoons.
Below you see the next stage of how I shaped the spoons.
Heston Blumenthals Myrrh Spoons being whittled.
You will see above that the bark has been fully removed from the myrrh spoon, and the shape is starting to appear. Checking at this stage is very important, as you can easily lose size and shape by taking too much off.
Heston Blumenthals Myrrh Spoons
There was no room for error, and I did not want to phone Jennifer and ask her to go back to Oman to collect some more.
Part 3. It is like whittling a hawthorn bush except it’s a Myrrh tree
Heston travels to Oman in the footsteps of the three wise men to create a dish made from gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
As the spoon started to take shape, it became difficult to hold and whittle the spoon stem because working back from the spoon bowl, you have to then hold the thorn-like twigs, which makes control of the knife difficult.
Heston Blumenthals Myrrh Spoon Top View.
The underside of the spoon started to take shape, and as I started to whittle away the wood, every effort had to be made so that no pressure was applied to the stem, as this can cause a weakness and possibly snap the spoon.
The Underside Of Heston Myrrh Spoon.
What do they say? Don’t tempt fate. See what happened next
Part 4 Disaster as Heston spoon breaks at last minute.
How did that happen? It was all going so well, then disaster struck, a spoon broke after spending many hours of work on it. On the stem of the spoon being whittled, a knot appeared. This produced a weak spot, and I ended up with two pieces. Now this would have been ok normally if I had a large amount of timber to use, but unfortunately, I did not. This small amount of myrrh wood had come all the way from Oman.
Getting on a plane and flying out to Oman to get more myrrh wood was not an option.
Getting on a plane and flying out to Oman to get more myrrh wood was not an option.
Disaster as Heston's spoon broke.
After looking at the break on the small, narrow stem, there was only one option, and that was to dowel them together (sounds very easy when you say it fast), but this would have to be a very small dowel, and the next problem would be, would it hold together?
Heston Blumenthal's Smaller Myrrh Spoons
Well, I will not bore you with the process of doing this, but I can tell you it was successful. But I did not want to risk it coming apart in the show, so if you look at the photos of the completed myrrh spoon, you will see one extra spoon. This is a lot smaller than the others.
Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Christmas.
Take a look at the video and see a once-in-a-lifetime Heston Blumenthal Christmas dinner that includes gold, frankincense, and whittled myrrh spoons by The Bird Whittler.
Thank you to dailymotion.com for making this video still available.
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