Afterthoughts Project

I recently acquired two additional knives for the kitchen. My wife's recurring question every time this happens is, of course, "Don't you already have enough knives in the kitchen"? My fall back answer is always referencing my woodworking hobby by invoking the old mantra - there is always one special tool for everything. So far, I've been getting away with that disjointed logic.  Disjointed to most but not to me, naturally. 

The new smaller veggie knife in the photo below is for slicing the small stuff, i.e. cherry tomatoes, small fruits. or for cutting thin pieces of meat, shrimp and fish.  That's my reason and I quote Mrs. Slocum's total adamance with, "And I am unanimous with that!" from the long erstwhile British sitcom - "Are You Being Served".

However, I am not disagreeing with the fact that the bigger veggie will do all those things just as capably.  But because the smaller knife's blade is thinner, it is razor sharp. Oh, well.

Moving on to the next photo below, on the right is a most recent paring knife. 

It's got a thin wider blade that begged for a special application. What it lacked for a convincing argument I provided with, "Hmm.. interesting".

The question that followed was, "Should I make a special knife stand for them as I have with all the other knives?"

Years ago I made two knife stands - one for a heavy cleaver and another for a smaller but thinner cleaver together with a vegetable knife, shown below. The "afterthought" project was to simply add on to the existing knife stand and make it look like it was there all along and not look like an add-on part.

This is light woodworking but heavy on accuracy 😉as I created the channel on hardwood pieces.

The glue up is straightforward.
   

Now, it looks like the add-on was there all along with the original project.

From the previous blog, "Chopsticks for the Dexterity-Challenged", I found better uses for them aside from using them for eating. I use them during cooking, particularly for fried rice and noodles "for two" (small portion-cooking for just my wife and me) and for turning over thin pieces on the frying pan. You say, "Regular tongs will work, right?"  But where's the "intently elegance" if not with bamboo sticks. Actually, I find that the chopsticks make for thorough mixing of the fried rice and noodles that tongs or even forks do not provide.  And I am "unanimous with that".

By the way, these chopsticks are particularly good at holding on to slices of watermelon or cantaloupe by pressing on the two sticks ever so lightly before stabbing the sliced fruit with it. The slight spring-back-tension will hold the slice more securely than stabbing the fruit with a fork (with the inevitable possibility of slippage).

Now, I  think, learning to  use standard chopsticks is still a worthy challenge.  Next to the photo below is probably the best way to do it, if you haven't used  them before.

Hold the lower chopstick between the thumb joint and ring finger like so. Hold the upper chopstick between the tip of your thumb, the middle and the index fingers as shown. The upper chopstick can be moved up and down while the lower chopstick stays steady.  That way you focus only on moving one stick which makes hand/eye coordination a lot easier.

Now, for another of "afterthoughts", I use the "chopsticks for the dexterity challenged" during some of the cooking process, i.e., for mixing bihon (a Chinese/Filipino dish) and fried rice or turning over small pieces, like in frying ham, for example.

Below is another afterthought. We usually stab slices of watermelon or cantaloupe with a fork. What I do is press just ever so slightly the two sticks just enough for a mild tension before stabbing.  The slight spring tension created once it's in  (even for meat) secures the slices better than with a fork. Again, I am "unanimous with that". 😏

What about reconditioning wooden cutting boards? Yes, these kitchen "tools" are often ignored.  Afterthoughts are to have them reconditioned with beeswax or ordinary cooking oil.  Critical to keep the wood surface coated with oil to prevent bacteria from populating it and for easy clean up.  It, of course, preserves the wood.

Afterthoughts, like I said.

Chopsticks for the Dexterity-Challenged

First, the question is why almost two billion people use chopsticks; predominantly by the Chinese, that make up over a billion of the total worldwide users..

According to a Science Insights article (3/16/2026)

"Chinese people use chopsticks because of a combination of practical cooking methods, philosophical values, and thousands of years of cultural reinforcement. The short answer: Chinese cuisine was designed around bite-sized pieces of food that don’t require cutting at the table, and chopsticks turned out to be the perfect tool for picking them up. But the longer story involves fuel shortages, Confucian ethics, and a communal dining style that shaped one of the world’s most iconic eating utensils".

Apparently, during a rapid population growth early in Chinese history, cooking fuel became scarce. As a practical response, cooks started cutting meat and fish and all ingredients in small pieces to shorten the cooking process. Pairs of long slender sticks were used to stir, pick up food from boiling water or oil.  Gradually, over time, the sticks, reduced in length, became eating utensils when at first they were mainly used for serving. The evolution took time but it caught on and reached the level that it has today.

Its use spread to the neighboring lands although they evolved to where "Japanese chopsticks are shorter (20 to 24 centimeters), tapered, and pointed at the tip, which helps with picking apart fish. Korean chopsticks are made of metal, flat and rectangular, and shorter still (18 to 22 centimeters). Each culture adapted the basic concept to fit its own food and dining style".

This takes us to the modern day world where 5-6 billion people do not use chopsticks - mainly spoon and fork (knife, when needed) and simply hands in several cultures.  Using chopsticks for the uninitiated but inclined to try, dexterity and hand/eye coordination make learning a challenge. I started learning to use them years ago. With practice I can now do it ambidextrously (although I still favor right handed use).

Now, for the dexterity-challenged I present the easy chopstick as a woodworking project. I joined the two sticks together permanently, as shown below.  With this design, one may easily pick up a thin packet of condiment with ease and precision.  Try using regular chopsticks to do the same.

I've made chopsticks from scratch before using hardwood.  This time, from my stash of commercial bamboo chopsticks that came with Chinese take-out I rummaged from one of the kitchen drawers I split open several of them to be rejoined later.  I created a groove on hardwood to insert and hold securely with glue to create two permanently joined sticks. The photos that follow are self-explanatory (I think).

 

 

 

Going back to  the early evolution of the chopstick when at first it was mainly a cooking utensil to stir and pick up pieces of meat or vegetable from boiling water or cooking oil, I created what I thought they may have looked like. 

Bamboo is ideally perfect for chopsticks because its long tightly straight grain makes for a very pliable material, resistant to breakage or cracking. I ripped some leftover bamboo flooring material to create the two pieces. I tapered a piece of hardwood upon which to glue the pieces.

 

 

I used food-grade finish (same used for wooden salad bowls)

 

The new project now sits along side previously made regular chopsticks from hardwood with their custom-made stands.

I went from from the modern brute practicality of these ...

To the modern adaptation of an intently ancient elegance of these ..

 


 

Back in June, 2020 I did a blog on "Chopsticks" where I made my own versions of the regular chopsticks from hardwood.  I highlighted the fact that in nature chopsticks were a tool for birds, crocodiles and creatures from as early as the Triassic era of flying dinosaurs.

 

To view the blog, please copy the link below, paste it to your search bar and click. I showed step-by-step project the hardwood chopsticks that I still use today.

https://easywoodworking-tolerba.blogspot.com/2020/06/chopsticks.html

Damascus Knife With Knife Stand

The Damascus Knife

There is no quick or truly reliable answer as to what really defines a Damascus blade.  In fact, the name does not come from the city of Damascus, Syria.  It is believed that the Damascus blade originated in India and perhaps Sri Lanka, but perhaps imported to and widely sold in Damascus, Syria.  Metallurgists who did research on it, at one time or another, believed that the original steel and the source of it no longer exist and so is the process of producing the distinctive wavy, water-like pattern of the blade. Today's Damascus blades produced with modern processes are supposed to be completely different from the original way of making Damascus steel. Needless to say, original Damascus blades that date back to the 1500s  remain in collectors' hands and beyond the reach of ordinary knife enthusiasts like me. 

So, I settled for the next best thing - a bare blade knife kit; mass produced by forging two different kinds of steel, welded and folded over as many as 32 to 64 times. The series of folds under high temperature and pressure by hammering produced the distinctive wavy patterns. I read that that is not necessarily how the old Damascus blades were made. 

I bought one online. For the wooden handle ("scales"), I used a section of scrap saved from hardwood flooring material of white oak.  I picked the scrap with the most distinctive grain pattern. Shown below is blade that came honed and sharp.

I've done this before in a few knife projects in previous blogs. One difference this time is that I had the pins hidden between the scales by not drilling all the way through.

For the knife stand I used scrap wood as well and a see-through acrylic (Plexiglass) face.

Shown with earlier knife stand projects (from earlier blogs) where I also used acrylic (Plexiglass).