A friend came over last night and brought me a very large green garbage bag full of chop sticks. A restaurant went out of business and she ended up with them. Upon opening them up there are tons of plastic ones and I don't know what kind of of plastic they are. Can anyone tell me?
There are also wooden ones of different brands and are all shapes and sizes and quality. Some appear to be Bamboo, but others seem to be made out of some sort of hardwood. Does anyone have any knowledge of what type of wood they would be and are they worth keeping for use in our hobby.
Also the Bamboo ones don't seem to want to paint up very well. All comments most welcome. Has anyone used chopsticks to build anything. Thanks.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
The only thing I've ever tried using wooden chopsticks for is for trestle pilings. I don't know what type of wood you may have other than bamboo, but do know that you cannot paint bamboo but can stain it by letting it soak in the stain.
It's also very hard to find a glue that will stick to bamboo.
Hi, I live in Northern BC and at one time there were four factories making disposable chopsticks.
Three of the four factories folded and there is still one in production. Their market is entirely Japanese.
The wood used for the chopsticks is Aspen. This wood has a very limited market at present and it is very abundant and cheap. It dries to a white finish and has no obvious smell.
Just finished using a pair of chopsticks a few minutes ago. The udon was delicious!
In all honesty, I have never considered using them for anything other than eating utensils.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Ate raw tuna, barbecued beef, and lettuce salad at my favorite LJR today (staffed only with Mongolians). My girl friend always takes my used wooden chopsticks and uses them in her garden for marking seed rows and such.
Mark
The plastic ones may not be of use for much, but could be used as corner post inside scratch-built bulings, or even to strengthen kits ones. If they take paint well after a sanding you may have some possibilities for building anything that may have solid wood posts or beams or square girders.
The wood ones almost scream out "trestle"!! they would be good beams for a trestle bridge big or small. Sanded lightly and stained with a gray-ish stain, they would be perfect!
Bamboo, maybe sand it lightly and see it takes stain or paint. THey, too, could be used for a trestle bridge or for thick planks on a RR loading dock.Bamboo by itself {except where the joints are which shows it as bamboo} may look like some naturally dingy wood from a project as it does have a patina that could lend to semi-aged wood.
If you model with steam, they could be used as the many support posts for a water tower.
They could be glued side by side together to make walls of a building or structure such as a barn or RR side track warehouse, and even glued side by side to form a roof..painted silver after a light sanding the roof would like ametal roof, and the side walls could be painted or left the color the plastic is already, just maybe weathered a bit.
Depending on what scale you model and the size of the sticks, you could also make cut to size stacks of RR ties for aload on a flat car, or by the yard or even out in the main run, waiting for the track repair peeps can access them to replace worn out ones.
They could also be glued stacked up to for a retaining wall made of wood beams, or for the older days tunnel portal supports.
Oh there ARE possibilities if you get creative!!!
GOod luck
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
I have a bunch laying around in plans to try making trees with them.
no one has said this:
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Two three days ago, I took 15 baboo SKEWERS and painted them with black acrylic craft paint, went over again while wet with chocolate colored paint and once more with a little dark beige craft paint, to get a non-uniform weathered battern. Cut each skewer into 7 pieces with the Chopper, instended to each be 1 inch long butgy my guide slipper gradually and the length came out a little non-uniform. Wasn't sure how many it would take. I ended up using half of them to make a piling bulkhead for a waterfront scene.
Looks good so far...
I could not find basswood dowels smaller than 1/8 inch after going to two underwhelmingly stocked crfaft stores. Bamboo skewers were about 3/4 that size, or maybe 3/32.
I like the idea of back-stops for spur ends, retaining walls, cribs for bridge pylons, timbers for grade crossings, timbers for foundations under old boxcars used as yard offices or lubes storage sheds, they can be cut to suitable length, stained, and stacked on flatcars as shipments of new crossties....the list goes on.
-Crandell
You can use a few for sanding small areas in difficult-to-reach locations.
Bevel the end to about 45 degrees and glue on a small piece of sandpaper. I keep a few of them around with various grits from coarse to fine.
Packer no one has said this: kadee uncoupling sticks
kadee uncoupling sticks
Thought of that too but they are too thick in diameter.