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 take 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). 

Let There Be Soft Daylight

DIY lighting can and should be a home improvement project that does not require a workshop to accomplish, with minimal tools required.  Today's LED technology makes it easy and energy cost-effective.  Sconce lighting add-ons, often "on or against the wall", have these advantages: (a) wall installations are far less difficult than ceiling installations; (b) will not take up additional floor space, pedestals or desk or table; (c) though a ladder is needed, eye level installation is far easier than having to look up when working on ceilings that can cause strains on the neck and back; (d) wiring extensions from existing outlets (usually a foot above the floor) for connections up the wall are far easier than adding outlets or junction boxes on the ceiling.  Even if you need to hire an electrician to add the outlets or junction boxes, the cost is a lot less compared to ceiling installations.

My aim with this project was to allow for soft but sufficient daylight type of illumination. The effect is achieved by indirectly propagating the light by bouncing a good amount of it off the ceiling and walls.  Shown below is the family room and breakfast area.

Ordering them online allows for a wide variety of options. The ones featured here allow for three different temperature scales. With  a built in toggle switch, you can go from yellowish lighting that mimics incandescent light bulb to  fluorescent white or a combination of the two.

 

Typically wired for direct connections to junction wires (black, white and green for ground) but you can wire with a 3-prong plug for outlet connections.

Tip: Instead of using commercial plugs that needs wiring, I used power cords of old printers, monitors and computers. If you must get rid of old electronic units to recycle centers, keep those cords for later.  Three of the installations were direct wired and controlled by standard wall switches.  The rest were wired for outlet connections controlled by remote switch, shown later.

A remote controller in this case (purchased separately) controls five lamps  plugged to an intermediate receptacle that the remote controls. They're numbered 1-5.

Provided with two remotes with magnets, I have one on the refrigerator door and on one wall corner that usually have steel corner support brackets behind the sheetrock.

Shown below without the acrylic cover.

Shown below, lighting the library/study with the same soft white light. 

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Adjoining the family room is the kitchen, also illuminated by indirect soft white light. An overhead LED fixture can be turned on for more lights if needed.

Sconce lighting also serves best as wall accent lighting and for illuminating along stairs for second level homes or for stairs to the basement.  It is the perfect add-on DIY project that requires only a few tools - a drill, screw driver and wire stripping pliers and electrical tape (hardly needed, really, because plastic connectors are already provided).