I would like to buy some pear wood kitchen utensils for my mum as a Christmas present. I've been looking everywhere for them, both in England and Italy, but I can't find them. I had a look in Internet and I have found some cutlery with pear wood handles, but it isn't what I'm looking for. I would like items (spoons, forks, bowls, plates, trays etc) that are made completely of pear wood. Does anyone know where I can find them online?
I haven't
used pear wood yet. For woodworkers (particularly instrument makers, perhaps) the name "pear wood" is associated with the deep-reach cam-operated light-duty bar clamps that many will be familiar with -- in the U.S. anyway. Why these are made of pear wood I do not know. Perhaps Koen, who seems to know more about woodworking than most woodworkers I know, would have an answer to these questions. . .?
Why do you seek specifically pear wood kitchen utensils, Antonella ? Perhaps these are traditional ?
Of course I doubt they'd come...
Of course I doubt they'd come cheap but I think this person wil be able to help you (see link), though perhps not in time for christmas.
The closest I've come to working with pear is laying 'french pear' formica! But have only ever seen it used as veneer and inlay on antiques.
The trees I've seen seem to take many many years to attain appreciable girth and don't look well suited to standard milling or rotary peeling, perhaps they are just extra gnarly around here.
http://www.handmadeofwood.com/about/about-ian
Because my mum, who is...
Because my mum, who is English, heard that here in Italy pear wood is regarded as the best kind of wood that exists. And my Italian grandmother (from Pavia) on that occasion told us a children story that she had forgot to tell me before (apart from that, she has told me all the traditional local Italian stories for children that she knows).
The story says that there were some nasty witches disguised as retailers that were selling "poisonous" kitchen utensils. The poison had the effect of transforming people into animals of many kinds. So if someone had eaten a soup that had been stirred with a poisonous spoon from a witch, the transformation was starting and developing according to the amount of poisonous food ingested.
A lot of things happen between the beginning and the end of the story, like the description of the people of the village who were surprised when they were transforming into strange animals... all the panic... the chaos... But there were some children who were really good (always kind, altruistic, helpful towards people in need, and generous) and therefore were protected by a good fairy. They realise that they need her help to solve the problem, but they have problems when they are trying to reach her, because the witches try to stop them with tricks. Eventually they find her; they tell her the situation and she save the all village by transforming the utensils in good ones that are made of pear wood. The witches try to transform them back into poisonous ones, but when they realise that their magic doesn't work against the good magic of the fairy, they feel ashamed and run away. Everyone becomes human again and the village is even happier than it was before.
I hope I haven't bored you too much with this fairy tale... 🙂 it's much much longer that that, but I've tried to summarise it...
My mum is interpreting the story as if it indicates that pear wood is actually very safe for cooking 🙂 In my family we think about safety a lot; maybe too much. We got into the habit of doing that and we like it. Like... we look for organic food, safe materials, etc...
I have just bought something ...
Thanks 🙂 I have just bought something very similar to this one (see pic) so that I'm sure that have a present ready for Christmas. In the shop nobody knows what kind of wood it is made of. I hope that I'll find some small items to add to it that are certified pear wood. Meanwhile I have contacted the guy from Handmade Of Wood.
Dear Antonella (Sorry SDR I was away for a few days...)
I do not know as much about wood as SDR suggests, I just happen to be born in the wood shavings of my father's workshop (the full story will be published by DCWilson) Pear wood seems to be a good choice for Italian wooden spoons. Pear trees can be found in every region of this sunny country. I am also sure there is a lot of truth in Antonella's grand-mother story. As usual with traditional stories, they are a kind of packaging to support one's memory by making sure that some basic knowledge and values will not be forgotten. (a lot of the older ones were put together in a book called the bible) As most fruit bearing trees, pear tree is a dense wood. It has the advantage over olive tree that it is very stable in drying. This stability is the result of the combination of two factors: density and homogeneity. Density on its own reduces tangential shrinkage but does not necessarily affect radial shrinkage unless there difference in density between the seasons (inner and outer part of the annual rings) is not too big. Generally olive wood has that problem and warping is very common (both twist, bow, crook and cup) Pear wood is easy to carve, just a pleasant combination of density and homogeneity. It has a pleasant unsaturated dark pink color but most of all it has a very pleasant taste. I do not know if there are still many pear wood spoon manufacturers in Italy but I hope there are. The city of Verona (if my memory serves me well is full of pear wood carvers but for a different industry, they carve foot models for the shoe industry. Because of its stability pear wood is often used in musical instruments. A friend of mine makes spoons and spatulas for Williams-Sonoma, but he makes them in Maple:..he is Canadian ..eh! I hope Antonella that you will find them, otherwise I might be able to convince Tom Littledeer to make you some in pear wood...but that would be for next year.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku5741384/?pkey=cctlutlset
All right.
And there you have it, as a friend likes to say. (No, Koen doesn't know much about wood -- much! Thank you again, sir.)
If musical instrument makers use pear sometimes, perhaps they began making their own clamps of the same material, and the idea stuck when proprietary makers took over ? I can't see that the material, sweet as it apparently is, would
be especially appropriate for these little cam clamps. . .
Maybe the sensitive musician-makers appreciate consistency in their environment ?
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