Spoon crooks, also called elbows, are the natural bend in a branch or small tree. This is the preferred wood for spoon carving. Crooks are most commonly caused by a branch taking a turn where a small limb protrudes or where one has broken off. Trees are full of crooks, naturally, but only a few are really ideal for spoon carving.
The first photo is a branch of a Birch tree that contains a fine spoon blank. The second photo is a closeup of this section.
Most 'hard woods' can make a fine spoon. Ideal are woods like birch, apple, maple.....that do not have a strong flavor (like black walnut does) and have fine dense grain. Dry dead branches rarely work because they have bug holes and cracks, and are very hard compared to green wood. Once a spoon is roughed out of green wood it may be easily dried without cracking, as long as you have left no pith (center) in it.
Ideally, the very best blank is the lower section of a crook. However, rarely is this piece useable because normally the bend is caused by a knot, (as in the above pics). When a bend is caused by outside natural forces, like snow load, then both sides are useable.
The blanks below can all make fine spoons. The 2 middle pieces are from the top of a branch and are partly bandsawed already.
Both of these are great, as they have a double courve.
OK
OK
Only top is useable
(Bottom has a knot)
The next stage would be drawing a spoon shape on the blank and roughing out by bandsaw, coping saw, or carving axe. If you are cutting blanks for a future time, leave a couple inches extra wood on each end, and store in an airtight plastic bag in the freezer. They may be stored as full crooks, or as roughed out blanks.