soup stir stick

Dan Noren

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falcon heights, minnesota
first out of the shop today, an easy one, a soup stir stick. when my wife's :blah: bunch gets together for a small fundraiser for the church, sometimes it can be tilapia and side items, tamales, or even stomach soup (aka menudo, mondongo, and other such aliases) being sold to the members. well, leonarda was using this pine implement for stirring the soup. when i saw it (and the shape it was in), i told her that since i have an extra board of white oak, that i would make her a new one. she said the one that she was using was still perfectly good, and she had been using it for the last 20 years (she's in her 70's, and not apt to change much, set in her ways you would say). well, i got down to it this morning, and it only took about an hour or so from start to finish (as i had already laid out the design on the board earlier). first things being first, stepped up to the ol' band saw, and rough cut it close to the line, then over to the spindle sander for the trip up to the line. after that was done, i rounded over the edges with a 1/2" roundover bit in the router, drilled the hole (1") with a forstner bit in the drill press (only way i can drill it straight), and rounded that over too (well, the bit was in the router). then it was sanded from 100 to 150 grit (hand sanded on the narrow sides), then given a good coat of mineral oil. all that is left now is to try my hand at braiding a buckskin loop to hang it with (pic of that later if it works out). she's visiting family back in the home country, so i won't know if she will like it, or clock me with it for about a month or so. wish me luck....
 

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That's a sweet looking weapon, Dan. She will love it. The paddle part looks kind of thick though. Did you consider a bit of taper there? It would hurt less and stir better:)
 
did give it a thought ted, about tapering the blade. three things kept me from doing it though, one being lack of access to the belt sander, the second is the potential for my screwing it up, and the third being the size of the chunks in the soup (rather generous cuts of stomach there). with that in mind, i followed the ambassador's sage advice, and built it stout.
 
That's a paddlin! Looks pretty spiffy Dan, ought to be plenty functional in either regard. Here's to hoping she uses it on the soup and not on you :D

I know some folks can't stand it but I always thought menudo wasn't half bad. Especially after a rather long night. Tilapia OTOH .. I have a hard time bringing myself to eat those; funny how things are.
 
did give it a thought ted, about tapering the blade. three things kept me from doing it though, one being lack of access to the belt sander, the second is the potential for my screwing it up, and the third being the size of the chunks in the soup (rather generous cuts of stomach there). with that in mind, i followed the ambassador's sage advice, and built it stout.
Good advice too....I used to have an occasional bowl of İŞKEMBE ÇORBASI (tripe soup) as a hangover cure while stationed in Turkey. That stuff cured me from drinking:)
 
been a while with this one, but it had to happen. :rolleyes: last saturday the wife :blah: had me bring her over to the house of one of our friends that was having a fundraiser (you guessed it, stomach soup, and other stuff with it) for a family that was having a rough go of it in guatamala. they had a big batch of the soup going, and leonarda had to tell me that she was so happy with the soup stirrer, and that she was using it to stir the soup. funny thing is, the wife of our friend wants me to make her one too, maybe a little shorter in length (she's a little shorter in height).
 
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