Hook Knife

A hook knife is a specialized carving knife with a curved (hooked) blade designed for cutting into concave surfaces. It’s often shaped like a small spoon or ladle. Carvers use it to hollow out the insides of spoons, cups, bowls or kuksas, where a straight knife can’t reach easily. The curve lets you carve outward from the center of a piece, scooping wood away smoothly.

Beginners find a hook knife useful because it quickly hollows out rounded shapes with control. Instead of pulling a straight knife through wood and forcing it into concave areas, a hook knife naturally follows the curve of the cut. This means less effort and a cleaner result when carving spoon bowls or shallow cups. Learning spoon carving with a hook knife is satisfying: each cut feels intuitive and safe, helping new carvers build confidence.

At BeaverCraft, we offer hook knives in our kits for spoon and kuksa carving. For example, our long-handle spoon carving knife (SK2) is a type of hook knife with a 30 mm curved blade. As we note in our description: «With the hook knife, you will be able to carve wooden spoons, kuksa, bowls, and more». This makes it easier for beginners to make useful items right from the start, since the tool is built specifically for those concave cuts.