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I love innovative ideas, especially when they can enhance our lives, and what better place to do this than in the kitchen. I wish I could take credit for this neat idea, but I suspect it has been around for many, many years it countries where bamboo grows quite prolifically, and has been in use for a variety of building needs for centuries. Building this knife block has been on my list of things to do for about 2 years. So much so that I even went out and purchased (what I thought) would be more than the correct number of packages of bamboo skewers to build this unit. That shows you how wrong I can be sometimes - I had to go out 2 more times to purchase more. The block that I made has take about 20 packages of bamboo skewers. Next time I will be a bit more careful on the size.
To start off, I search through my somewhat extensive collection of cut-off pieces of wood and came up with a few likely suspects. One piece that I like was both figures and somewhat spalted, and it was even a live edge piece. I decided to plane it down enough to see the grain and then to determine if I would have enough wood left if I were to split it into 2 halves, which in fact worked out fine.
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Making kitchen accessories in your workshop is both fun and rewarding because you can frequently make these items for a fraction of what they cost to purchase and they often last much longer, not to mention they can be made to be far more attractive than the run-of-the-mill commercial versions. For many woodworkers making these kitchen and dining accessories can turn into at least a part time and sometimes even a full time job in making these and selling them at craft fairs, swap meets and farmers markets.
Everyone loves pizza, which is why the Pizza Peel is such a popular item. It's especially valuable if you have younger children or for people who have limited mobility as the peel is a much safer and easier way of removing a pizza from a hot oven. The one I made had a little bit wider handle especially suited for this cause.
In my case I wanted to make mine look a bit more appealing than just using plain wood. I also wanted to laminate my to help make it a little bit stronger. The woods I selected ..
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I am always astounded how much work and how many pieces it takes to build "small" items when compared to building larger items like furniture. I have to admit,
I often find building smaller items is more fun although you do need to be even more on guard with power tools when you are working with small parts.
This little drink tote idea poped into my head when I was out doing a quick trip to the grocery store and I noticed a display of soft drinks with the carboard carrying handles ... you know, you seen them hundred times. Little carboard holder with a handle that carries 6 bottled drinks around. I thought, I could make something like that from wood and it would be great gift idea, or for anyone who makes little wooden items for craft fairs, flea markets and garden markets, this would be a great little item.
The thing I like about it is that most of the drink manufacturers now have somewhat standardized on the sizes of their bottles because they all want them to fit in vending drink dispensing machines and even drink dispensing coolers are grocery and convenient stores.
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I don't get visitors in the workshop very often, but when I do it's a real treat. In this episode I have the delightful Pailin visiting me from http://hot-thai-kitchen.com Pailin has asked me if I can make a wooden Mortar and Pestle for her to use in her kitchen and in her YouTube videos.
I have never made a mortar and pestle so it's great to have someone around who not only uses them but knows what to look for when selecting them as she can show me the exactly how it needs to be shaped and turned.
What she doesn't know, is that she is going to have a bit of a hand in wood turning herself so she can see exactly what it's like to create your own kitchen utensils and have that same sense of accomplishment as you get with cooking a great meal.
What Pailin has promised to do is show ME how to cook some delicious Thai RIBS and here is the link to that video to watch me learning to cook Ribs !!!
To start off with, I laminated 3 pieces of hardwood together using wood glue and clamping them firmly, and letting them dry and harden overnight ....