Kitchen Utensils

Every morning before sunrise, Don slipped into his barn-turned-workshop, where the smell of fresh-cut wood mixed with coffee steam. His hands, rough and steady, carved spoons, spatulas, and ladles from maple, walnut, and cherry — each piece shaped not just by tools, but by decades of instinct.

He didn’t talk much, but his utensils did. A cherrywood spoon had a curve just right for soups on cold nights. A flat walnut spatula flipped eggs with a quiet confidence. People in town swore food tasted better when cooked with Don’s pieces, like his tools carried a whisper of the forest in them.

He never signed his work, but you could tell it was his — not by a mark, but by a feeling in the hand. Solid, warm, humble.

Don didn’t think of himself as an artist. He just said, “I make things that last.”

And they did.

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(Made by Don Krug for Employee Build Challenge)

Finish: Walrus Oil