Chop sticks

[rich59]

You know how children drive you mad playing a simple tune called Chop Sticks. Well I was wondering if chop sticks might be my first attempt at carving. You can eat with them and they look simple to make. If we were a Chinese or Japanese bushcraft site then we probably would already be making them and not worrying too much about spoons.

If a chop sticks carving thread catches on it could drive you experienced carvers made too!!!!!

 

[Spacemonkey]

Hmm, but are you going to make Chinese style chopsticks or Japanese style chopsticks?
I find the hashi jap style best for eating, but for rice the thicker chinese ones fit the bill. That's why I always order noodles, that and the fact tat noodles HAVE to be cooked fresh, unlike the rice which is either left on all evening, or warmed up from earlier. Strangely enough it is the rice in restaraunts that causes most dodgy guts.... but not in our restaraunt. Our chef is a proper one, and his dimsum is ace!

 

[stuart f]

Yes i can see why chopsticks would be good for in the woods,but i gave up with them after taking 3 days to eat a tin of Heinz tomato soup :twak:

But seriously though they are easy to make and don't take as long to carve as a spoon.

 

[leon-1]

You know how children drive you mad playing a simple tune called Chop Sticks. Well I was wondering if chop sticks might be my first attempt at carving. You can eat with them and they look simple to make. If we were a Chinese or Japanese bushcraft site then we probably would already be making them and not worrying too much about spoons.

If a chop sticks carving thread catches on it could drive you experienced carvers made too!!!!!

From what I recall even the chinese use spoons, so you aint gonna get out of carving spoons untill your hallway is littered with them that easily Rich

 

[rich59]

Oh my goodness. There is a lot to chopsticks I see.


www.ichizen.com/chopsticks/chopsticks.htm
www.ichizen.com/chopsticks/chopsticks_2001_01.htm
www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Chopsticks.html
www.infoplease.com/spot/chopsticks1.html

I guess a bushcraft chopstick would mostly be wood (but maybe recycling aluminium to make one is possible) with an oiled finish. Or maybe bone or antler?

I guess it is choose a bit of wood and start working on it. All I have is an axe, a Swiss army knife and some sand paper to start with.

 

[bowman]

There must be a fair few chopsticks lurking in that mulberry log on your other thread - see my post there.

Bowman

 

[BOD]

You can eat with them and they look simple to make. If we were a Chinese or Japanese bushcraft site then we probably would already be making them and not worrying too much about spoons.

They are a useful piece of bush kit too. I always carry a pair of bamboo Japanese style chopsticks and the Chinese style spoon which has a deeper bowl than a normal spoon.

The chopsticks are used for stirring, sampling, lifting billies off the fire, picking up hot coals, picking stray insects that fall into your tea. and stabbing meat pieces.

They have other uses too such as getting hold of small screws and nuts that fall into inaccessible places, such as bilges (I keep a pair in the boat tool kit as well);
immobilising and removing without harming venomous creatures like centipedes, scorpions and spiders and small snakes. You can also break them up and burn them if you have no available kindling or use them as a finger splint

The uses are only limited by our imagination

 

[8thsinner]

I always new there were a lot of chopsticks but so so many I had no idea.
I guess what ever you use to eat on a regular basis has become such an easy thing to have decorated that there would be literally hundreds of thousands of variations.

Cool

 

[Graham_S]

i always have a pair in my food bag. ideal for turning bacon and sausages over in the frying pan.
a very useful tool

 

[rich59]

So... a fine grained hardwood, non poisonous, that doesn't break easily? What have we got in the UK that fits the bill?

 

[jason01]

So... a fine grained hardwood, non poisonous, that doesn't break easily? What have we got in the UK that fits the bill?

Box

You could use anything you like really though. Hawthorn springs to mind as well.

 

[ozzy1977]

Holly would be good too,

 

[rich59]

Is holly wood safe? Seem to remember something unsafe about the plant, or was that just the berries?

 

[ozzy1977]

As far as I know Holly shoud be totaly safe. Beech would be a good choice also

 

[gregorach]

There's not really any need for them to be durable - treat 'em as disposable and save on the washing up. Take pretty much any non-poisonous stick of about the right diameter, remove bark, shape slightly - job done.

 

[jdlenton]

could you not use some thin hazzel rods ?

i've got some that are arrow rejects i wonder what i will be making tonight

James

 

[Keith_Beef]

I started a thread on this a long time ago, where I described banging out a pair of cherry chopsticks in a few seconds with an axe, because I couldn't be bothered to go all the way across the garden to the kitchen to get the barbecue tools

Unfortunately, that thread seems to have disappeared.

I use my chopsticks in the kitchen just about every day for turning food and for stirring, more than for eating.

I agree with considering them as disposable, or rather recyclable as fuel.


K.

 

[8thsinner]

Holly IS poisonous when used in kitchen tools as is yew. Oh. another one not to use that I know off is elderberry, Unfortunatly I have loads of this out the back......

Fruit woods eg apple and cherry would be good to use. Beech and oak and the more obvious choices, Curly birch dyed to match your knife handle would be very nice though.

I might have a look around for something myself actually, I use them all the time in the kitchen but never took them away with me........It would make so much sense.

 

[rich59]

could you find a reference on the net about the safety of woods like holly and elderberry?

 

[Motorbike Man]

Of course, if you wanted something a bit more durable, you could always go down the tactical chopstick route