A note about stirring sticks

Here is a stirring stick that I made out of some scrap walnut.  (I made two of them, but I can't find the other one.)  I give you two pictures so you can see the grain with the slightly different lighting.

In the process of making them, I learned a few things:

They are fun to make.  You take your scrap wood, carve off the edges, maybe make it a funny shape.  Very easy and fun.

Walnut is hard to sand.  It really likes to splinter.  You will sand for a long time.  (Actually, I also learned this at Christmastime when I was sanding walnut spoons.)  This is another good reason to use maple instead.

Finally, the most important thing.  Stirring sticks are good for only one thing - stirring.  Spoons, on the other hand, are good for stirring, scooping, tasting, scraping, serving, etc.  Therefore, only make a stirring stick if you have wood that can only be made into a stirring stick.  Otherwise, it seems like a waste of wood and time to me.