Bridge City Tools Chopstick Master V2

[Mr Brush]

We forumites should consider ourselves lucky to have fletty as our "canary down the mine".....

He's saved me a fortune already.

[Robson Valley]

DIY noodles = use an Imperia machine $50. They've been around since the mid-1930's, even for stained glass noodles.

Cut the blanks and chop sticks are pretty easy to make with a $16.00 Samona spoke shave.

[fletty]

I’ve received MY FIRST CHOPSTICK COMMISSION!

Alright, so it is from family..... but it’s still A COMMISSION?
My grand urchins require shorter chopsticks and so a black (= wenge) and white (= Huon pine) pair have been requested..... only 379 more pairs and it will have paid itself off?

[Mr Brush]

The wenge might be interesting - quite a brittle and splintery timber.

Look forward to seeing the results of your efforts

[ian]

I’ve received MY FIRST CHOPSTICK COMMISSION!

Alright, so it is from family..... but it’s still A COMMISSION?
My grand urchins require shorter chopsticks and so a black (= wenge) and white (= Huon pine) pair have been requested.

what ??


you have no ebony or holly in your wood stash ?


I tend to think that the just watching the grand urchins make their own chop sticks would, in itself, be worth half the cost.

[Mr Brush]

I was thinking the same thing - that "queen ebony" which always seem to be sold at the WWW shows, is very dark (not completely black), but much easier to work than wenge. Also I believe wenge dust can cause allergies in some people? Wenge has huge open pores in the end grain as well.

How about rock maple for the lighter stick, if you don't have any holly to hand?

[FenceFurniture]

I have some seriously fiddled fiddleback Blackwood which could work (dunno about how foodsafe it is). I could spare you a splinter or two....

[John Saxton]

Look for the serious darksiders take on the saw kit ...& so we wait?
Could be an option but price & shipping to here in Oz begs the question?

Edit here-
Just looked US 1585 so some serious money plus shipping.

[fletty]

I was thinking the same thing - that "queen ebony" which always seem to be sold at the WWW shows, is very dark (not completely black), but much easier to work than wenge. Also I believe wenge dust can cause allergies in some people? Wenge has huge open pores in the end grain as well.

How about rock maple for the lighter stick, if you don't have any holly to hand?

hmmm, now you’ve got me thinking, in (I think) 1938 my father (my grand urchin’s Great GaGa) made an ebony straight edge for his intermediate certificate. I found it amongst his stuff and ripped it down to strips to make stringing to go on the lids of boxes made for the birth of the urchins (I wrote a thread called, I think, Boxes for Bubs, EDIT https://www.woodworkforums.com/f87/bo...ht=Fletty+Bubs). I think I have some left over and stashed in a ‘safe place’? It is probably less than the required 7x7mm though?

[Xanthorrhoeas]

it looks to be to be a great bit of gear - congratulations. And, wow, that saw could really come in handy if I have to downsize my workshop - definitely something to keep in mind.

[fletty]

It’s VERY quiet next door so, rather than disturb the peace, I need a quiet job and I have the perfect candidate?

AB8503E8-C23E-4210-A5CF-DDBC9734E199.jpg 12AD8EEB-7465-4D7D-95D2-7CD6E5E76050.jpg 7806D7EF-9783-40A6-8D0C-F8DBB495B525.jpg

Im not happy with the results yet but the last near-silent 10 minutes tells me that wenge is ok (note lower case!) for chopsticks and that getting a regular octagon on the pointy end is dependent upon the size of the blank and its squareness. It is quite sensitive to size and 6.6 mm ain’t good enough!

[fletty]

It wasn’t QUITE a case of RTBI (Read The Bloody Instructions) but the problem was probably 50:50 technique and not having the plane mounted fully in its cradle? All fixed now though....

795CC121-A863-4EDE-8497-20E60CB6ED4C.jpg

From left to right are the first pair and the third was shaped with the plane mounted properly!
‘Mass’ production has begun!

[FenceFurniture]

Are you seriously going to turn that entire billet of wenge into choppies?

[fletty]

Nah, not the WHOLE billet, that would be silly, just the straight grained half !

[FenceFurniture]

I'll be checking tomorrow, but I remember it as being all straight grained....