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bowl-basher
19th April 2010, 05:29 PM
Hi All:?:?
I have been asked to make a mortar and pestel ( not sure of the spelling or the name) by a woman that intends to use it a lot and in particular pounds or bashes spices and such...... what timber would you lot suggest as the best choice for this??? it will be about 180mm in dia with fairly heavy walls
I had considered Red gum or iron bark but am not sure
Any help is greatly appreciated
Regards
Bowl-basher

orraloon
19th April 2010, 05:41 PM
I made one in ironbark a couple of years ago and posted it on here.
It is hard enough but I have no info on how it has worked out use wise.
Regards
John

Ozkaban
19th April 2010, 06:27 PM
I'd imagine timbers that would be suitable for mallets (like carving ones) would be suitable - ie dense close grain that doesn't splinter, etc. Can't think of many off the top of my head but a search for mallets should help.

Cheers,
Dave

artme
19th April 2010, 06:47 PM
Ironbark, Spotted Gum, Red Gum, Blackwood, Mallee burl.


Not Camphor laurel!:no:

woodwork wally
19th April 2010, 10:06 PM
Jarrah, cairns ironwood[i think thats the name ] are 2 that i have used and several years down the track both doing well along with a redgum set cheers ww

tea lady
19th April 2010, 11:21 PM
Ironbark, Spotted Gum, Red Gum, Blackwood, Mallee burl.


Blackwood ? Might be a bit on the soft side.:shrug: I've made red gum ones.:cool:

rsser
20th April 2010, 05:12 PM
Blackwood's fairly dense and may be OK for the mortar.

The bottom of the mortar should have a regular radius and the pestle a slightly tighter one.

Traditionally these are made of ceramic in the West and granite or similar in the East. I suspect that for hard seeds wood may not be up to the job, not least cos the flavour will be imparted to the wood and taint the next mix.

Any case, go for a wide foot on the mortar for stability and any timber with high density and fine grain.

I've recently done 3 M&Ps for a customer. Pestle pic below. These were for a trad Macedonian dish of boiled potatoes and chillis. The mortars were Deodar and the pestles Silky Oak. Neither of those would do for seed pounding obviously.

The bottom of the pestle handle is proud of the mortar rim. The handle is scaled down to suit a smaller hand than my own which I took as a starting point. On this, the business end is wide as the pots are soft. For seed pounding I'd aim for a diam of an inch to 1.25. (The grid in the pic is 5mm).

HTH

issatree
20th April 2010, 08:46 PM
Hi Bowl Basher,
My thoughts are that you don't use Red Gum or Jarrah, because if the happen to get wet while using them, then the likely hood of it is that you will have Pinky Coloured Food.
I have always used Cotoneaster, or Photinia, both very very hard.
I think Blackwood wood ? be good as well. Camelia, if you can find it big enough.
I'm not sure about Iron Wood, as I've found it can get a bit Splintery.
That's my 2 bobs worth.
Regards,
issatree.
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NeilS
21st April 2010, 06:04 PM
Have made a few in the past but have noticed that most of them end up on the kitchen shelf as decoration (not sure what that says about my work.. :U ), so can't really comment on what works best in use over the long run.

Most were made from seasoned desert acacias (hard as granite), but a few were made from recipient's own wood, such as ancient red gum and buloake.

.....

Harry72
22nd April 2010, 01:16 AM
What if you used a soft metal liner?

You could use the motar as the mold for spun metal