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

Another option other than the broom corn straw is horsetails (the plant aka
Equisetum arvense).  One of the polissoir promulgators had a rather long
article on this but I can't remember if it was don's barn or schwartz or
one of the other folks.  Anyway it was supposed to also work quite well and
may likely be available at the local slough for the cost of picking..

Because of the silica content of horsetail and bamboo, I wonder whether 
they might be less effective in producing and polishing a smooth 
surface, though they might prove useful as abrasive. Maybe someone could 
do a test.

fwiw
Don

On 2024-02-04 11:02 a.m., rumwrks wrote:
> Another option other than the broom corn straw is horsetails (the plant aka
> Equisetum arvense).  One of the polissoir promulgators had a rather long
> article on this but I can't remember if it was don's barn or schwartz or
> one of the other folks.  Anyway it was supposed to also work quite well and
> may likely be available at the local slough for the cost of picking..
>
>
> 
>
>

-- 

"You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you 
don\u2019t do too many things wrong." - Warren Buffet

\u201cTo argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, 
and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like 
administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist 
by scripture.\u201d \u2015 Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

and that game would be PIT.

We loved that as kids

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_(game)

Kirk in Half Moon Bay, CA, who's work list grows hourly with the extended
power outages, wind and rain to deal with.



On Sat, Feb 3, 2024 at 12:54 PM Richard Wilson <
yorkshireman@y...> wrote:

>
> 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.
>
>
>


-- 
Kirk Eppler in Half Moon Bay, CA 

I had totally forgotten about Pit, even though we played it 
enthusiastically for several years in my family. Great memories!

--Chris

Check out H-frame, the site for vintage Black & Decker Workmates
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