My, but I didn’t see that rabbit hole coming….  


We used to have a card game which involved cards with all manner of grain
merchant goods, and doing a lot of shouting and trading to corner the market in
‘wheat’ or ‘corn’ or ‘barley’ or whatever.  Now, I knew what corn is, because we
had 3 farmers in the family, and corn is the generic English name for wheat.
So it was a surprise when Brer Rabbit used to fool around with corn, and it
wasn’t wheat.

And now you ‘Muricans are telling me, in chorus, that cornstalks are something
else again.  Sorghum is another variety of grass, so similar to wheat.  I have
located a UK source, a couple in fact - than ks for the suggestion of Etsy -
terrible prices on there, and the business practices came under considerable
scrutiny a short while back, but I’m on the track of supplies, and when the sun
and moon and tides align and I do some making I’ll report in.


Talking of things aligning.  I visited the dentist last week.  We got to talking
about dental burrs.  Since my experiment with flesh eating beetles preparing
some bone to allow me to make Roman / Viking style pins with carved heads I’ve
had a hankering to try my hand at carving the pin heads the modern way, with
bone cutting rotating tools.  The dentist was very helpful, (and interested) and
I now have a supply line into professional tools.  Expensive!  Hundreds of
varieties!

But I’m rambling.  Earlier today, I had to look out a replacement drill bit, and
went ferreting into the box marked spares.
Not just drill bits, all manner of things, including 2 burrs that are very, very
tiny.
So now I have the bone and the bits - just need the time.  

Polissoirs - a month away at least..

Huge thanks to all the folk who’ve passed along references and info.  All
appreciated and filed away.


Richard Wilson
yorkshireman Galoot in Northumbria



> On 3 Feb 2024, at 18:56, Esther  wrote:
> 
> On 2024-02-03 13:49, Phil E. wrote:
>> Richard asks about "corn". I can't see how American maize would be made to
>> work. We do have a plant called "broom corn" that is more like thick wheat
>> stalks, that they may be referring to. But I would suppose almost any dried
>> stalks would work.
>> Phil E.
> The required item is "broom corn" which used to be the bristles on the tool to
sweep the floor (now hard to find but I still prefer to plastic).  Richard might
want to see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum_bicolor  to figure out the
local-to-him name, there are apparently many!
> 
> Esther
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 



-- 
Yorkshireman Galoot
in the most northerly county, farther north even than Yorkshire
IT #300