I was referring to Chem’s round end-grain board, which exists, and would be easy to cut from a log.
1 Like
I see boards labeled beech wood a fair bit in my neck of the US, but don’t think I’ve ever seen hornbeam (and/or probably wouldn’t recognize it if I did).
American beech and European beech are not the same ‘tree’ . . . one of the lovelies of “common names”
American beech shrinks/swells more than alternatives - unless kept oiled it can split or de-laminate. it is close grained and cut resistant - plussi and minusi . . .
Ah, I see; thanks. So, now I’m wondering, did settlers from England (etc.) come to US and think, “well, that looks like a beech so let’s call it a beech”? (Edit, see [1])
There’s a narrow horizontal slice of the Midwestern US spanning 4-5 states where green bell peppers were called “mangoes”.
[1] My “TIL” google - apparently there’s up to a baker’s dozen beech-related tree types (not sure why they give the “10-13” range; maybe there’s some argument amongst the eggheads).
- “Both of these lovely hardwood, deciduous trees belong to the Fagus subgenera of beech trees. European beech is classified as Fagus sylvatica and American beech is classified as Fagus grandifolia. 10 to 13 beech tree species are split between two distinct subgenera, Fagus and Engleriana”.
in a quiet year, if you can’t find any bigger rabbit hole to go down,
“taxonomy” will keep you busy for a lifetime . . .
and just when you’ve got it down, the eggheads change their minds . . .
3 Likes
Pluto IS a planet, Dangit!
Or maybe a dog…
1 Like
Plastic, or tiny bits of cured wood glue. Take your pick, because if you’re not using a plain wide plank of unglued wood, you’re going to get one or the other.
And end-grain boards, otherwise considered to be “premium,” expose more glue lines to your work surface.
6 Likes
3 Likes
Fascinating, @ChristinaM . I just ordered a tea infuser. Teabags are yet another source of microplastics. The vast majority of infusers were plastic mesh. Even most of the ones using stainless steel mesh had plastic parts. However, a few more seconds of searching yielded one that is entirely stainless steel. Under $10. So loose leaf tea it is!
4 Likes
a “microplastic” is defined as a particle less than 0.5 mm in size.
0.5 mm - that’s on the size order of beach sand.
if you were chewing/chomping on beach sand, do you think you would notice?
the particle size of (anything) which can pass thru the blood barrier into the brain/lungs/organs/etc is on the order of of 3-5 microns.
a micron is 1/1000th of a mm or 0.00004 inches.
so, while the “problem” does exist, chewing an a credit card to ingest your ‘credit card’ worth of micro-plastics is more a a challenge than often presented. . . .
You are correct, yet microplastics and nanoplastics are accumulating in our bodies. It’s the “or less” that gets ya.
1 Like
I just got some dough ready to bake baguettes tomorrow morning. I’m out of practice. It’s been a while. I’m standing there working the boule across the dough board with a plastic corne and it struck me – probably a bad idea.
1 Like
A new term for me. What is a corne?
1 Like
Anyone have experience with real rubber cutting boards? Synthetic rubber sheds micro-plastic but real rubber supposedly does NOT shed micro-plastics.
2 Likes
(post deleted by author)
I have looked recently. Actual rubber spatulas are very hard to find.
1 Like
Business opportunity…
1 Like
