Scrap Wood Chopsticks- Recycling Scrap Hardwood

So in this instructable I'm going to be showing how you can make chopsticks from scrap hardwood that otherwise would be hard to use.

For this instructable you will need:

Scrap hardwood. I had some maple and walnut left over from a chess board I had made so that is what I used.

Something to cut the wood with. I used a handsaw.

Something to shape the wood. I used a file mainly but sandpaper, a carving knife, a rasp or a sander could all be used.

Sand paper. A mixture of grits might be needed but I only had to use 220 grit.

Mineral Oil or another food safe wood finish.

Lets get to it...

Step 1: Find Some Scrap Hardwood and Cut It Into Square Blanks

I used a hand saw to cut the scrap hardwood pieces I had to about a quarter of an inch square by around a foot long blanks.

A table saw or band saw would make this go a lot quicker but due to the small size of the blanks you might want to do these cuts by hand.

Step 2: Shape the Blanks Into Chopsticks

Use either a wood rasp, a scraper, rough grit sandpaper or a file to shape the square blanks into rough chopstick shapes. If you have a belt or disk sander those would probably work really well for this step.

I found that the wood rasp worked quite well to remove lots of material. I then switched to scraping and finally finished by filing.

For the walnut chopsticks I rounded down the ends and tapered them into squares about a quarter of an inch thick where you hold them. For the maple ones I ended up accidentally gouging one of the edges as I was cutting it so I decided to add a cut out around the edge to hide that mistake.

Step 3: Sand and Finish With Mineral Oil

Thoroughly sand your chopsticks until smooth. Since the file I was using didn't leave many marks in the surface of the wood I jumped right to 220 grit sandpaper. If you are using a rasp then you might want to sand with a 100 grit or a rougher sandpaper before going straight to the fine 220.

Once you have everything sanded down smooth apply a few coats of mineral oil with a rag to finish your chopsticks. I followed the finishing guide