Mortar and pestle wood?

[Bernie Kopfer]

I thought it would be fun to turn a mortar and pestle but then realized I would need some very hard and heavy wood. And finding a solid piece big enough could be difficult. Not sure if glue ups would be a good idea. Any experience or recommendations?

[Earl McLain]

I did one last fall--used a few chunks of Texas Ebony that had been in the shop waiting for a project. It's a small one though, only about 3.5" in diameter. The TX Ebony polished up great with no finish on it. Most rosewoods could work as well--but i didn't have any cocobolo large enough. Lignum vutae would be great as well.
earl

[Stan Calow]

Dogwood, persimmon, osage orange. But those might not be locally available to you.

[Bernie Kopfer]

Thank you. Back to the question about gluing up a blank large enough. Would a glue up be strong enough for years of pounding and grinding?

[Reed Gray]

Well, first, I would want end grain for both mortar and pestle. Harder woods would better, and closed grain as well. So, sugar maple, beech, white oak, or some of the exotics. Lignum would be ideal, if you can afford it. I wouldn't use anything in the rosewood family, mostly to worries about cross contamination because they are reactive woods and it could cause allergic reactions. Stan's suggestions are good. Hop Hornbeam would also be great...

robo hippy

[Dave Mount]

+1 on endgrain for grinding surfaces. +1 on avoiding rosewoods. Osage orange is among the hardest North American woods, but it is also a little more open grained than I think you would want for this, don't want the wood retaining string flavors from spices, etc.

Lignum vitae would be ideal, but crazy expensive. Trouble with it and a lot of exotics is that they are generally available unseasoned, so might not be ready to go when you are. Purpleheart, jatoba, and ipe are all exotics that are harder than osage orange but likely findable in thick stock (e.g., 4"+).

Gluing is probably fine, though be aware some exotics have high oil content that can present gluing problems. I'm not aware that the three I mentioned are in the high oil group, but it would be good to verify that. IMHO, fear of glue weakness is overblown, especially if the piece doesn't get or stay wet for significant periods of time (enough to really absorb water).

Best,

Dave

[Bernie Kopfer]

Researching the above mentioned woods: IPE- possible toxicity Lignum - Good stuff if available is $$$$ and not environmentally friendly right now.
Jatoba is nicely dense and heavy and available in 8/4, so that looks good to me. Any other recommendations or working observations will be appreciated.

[John Nordyke]

I have made several from white oak.

[Don Orr]

My recommendation is to stick with North American domestic hardwoods with fine grain structure such as have been mentioned already. Cherry, Birch, any of the Maples, Beech, Hornbeam, etc. These are also much more readily available and safer. White Oak is OK but still quite coarse grained. You don't want residue getting caught in the pores. Stay away from Ash, Elm, Red Oak, Hickory, Black Walnut, Butternut, etc. No need to use any kind of finish or oil. The wood will take on its own patina from use. Foreign exotics are pretty and hard but carry too much health risk IMHO. Properly glued up blanks should be fine-you're not really pounding all that hard, more of a grinding motion. And yes, end grain orientation is correct. Fun project for sure, and useful.

[John K Jordan]

I thought it would be fun to turn a mortar and pestle but then realized I would need some very hard and heavy wood. And finding a solid piece big enough could be difficult. Not sure if glue ups would be a good idea. Any experience or recommendations?

I used olive. Our personal chef uses it all the time in the kitchen.

A poor cell phone pictures with lousy light, but maybe you get the idea. I'll try to do better later.

453947

If you haven't turned Olivewood, it's wonderfully heavy, fine grained, beautiful figure. And smells great. I've been using olive for most kitchen things.
Big Monk Lumber usually carries suitable blocks. Need a piece for the pestle too.

Hard maple might be good.

JKJ

[Dave Mount]

After suggesting jatoba earlier today, coincidentally I actually turned some today, and after seeing it up close, was surprised at the size of the pores in it. Below I show a picture of a rough sphere (this is just off the gouge, not finished; the wood is not dry so the sphere will be trued up and sanded after drying). The pores in jatoba are pretty big; there aren't that many of them, but those that are there are big. The Wood Database has 10x views of the endgrain of most woods if you're curious: www.wood-database.com (http://www.wood-database.com). Search for a wood, the pictures are at the bottom of each article.

453949

With no intended disrespect, I'm not sure the data support a categorical exclusion of non-native woods as potential health risks. The Wood Database has an article compiling reported health effects from woods (https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-allergies-and-toxicity/); reading through it, I see that birch (Betula genus) and maple (Acer genus) have the same ratings as purpleheart and jatoba (who would think that maple could be rated for potential health risk!?!?; I hope no one drinking my homebrew is affected by leachate from my maple mash paddle. . .). I am not suggesting there are meaningful health threats from maple and birch for people that don't have a specific allergy, just that there's information out there, and the existence of some truly toxic non-North American woods (e.g., Tamboti) doesn't need to taint them all. Not pushing exotics either, just saying what the evidence is.

If you choose birch, get yellow birch not paper birch -- yellow birch is substantially harder. Both are often sold as "birch" by lumber dealers, though nationally I believe more of the supply comes from yellow birch.

Best,

Dave

[Bernie Kopfer]

Interesting design of the pestle John J. Easy on the palm and a nice crushing surface. And a nice grip if you use two hands. My desire was to make it as heavy as possible. That’s why the interest in exotic woods. Using a M&P made from marble or granite makes a wood one seem like a lightweight that would scoot around on the counter. Olive wood would look nice and have some heft. Tempted to consider a base that the mortar sets into made from Ipe for stability and weight. This could be fun.

[John K Jordan]

Interesting design of the pestle John J. Easy on the palm and a nice crushing surface. And a nice grip if you use two hands. My desire was to make it as heavy as possible. That’s why the interest in exotic woods. Using a M&P made from marble or granite makes a wood one seem like a lightweight that would scoot around on the counter. Olive wood would look nice and have some heft. Tempted to consider a base that the mortar sets into made from Ipe for stability and weight. This could be fun.

The design is not mine! I found it in the AAW magazine. One end of this design is rounded for pulverizing things. The other is slightly rounded for use in a glass as a muddler. My Lovely Bride the chef has used it to crush mint and other leafy things.

I found the article online. Search google for mortar and pestle aaw or try this link:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjJmaaXraLvAhUTVc0KHbw-DWoQFjABegQIARAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.woodturner.org%2FHighe rLogic%2FSystem%2FDownloadDocumentFile.ashx%3FDocu mentFileKey%3D79ada9b6-6ffa-435e-9c15-e13242662d6f&usg=AOvVaw1SZTdmQzyMYEGTLEXC9wyi

The author used olivewood too. He talks about the wood and the design. Worth reading. I used a different method to turn but his looks like it will work ok.

Olive is heavy and I kept the walls thick to make it heavier. We have never noticed any tendency to scoot. If it did, I'd probably set it on a silicone mat.

BTW, I used no finish inside. I applied a bit of Watco "danish" oil to bring out the figure on the outside.

I have one made from glass but this looks better and feels better in use.

JKJ

[Bernie Kopfer]

Thank you John! And others. Good information..