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Salt and pepper mills - yew?

Steve Maskery

Steve Maskery

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In a previous life I, Steve Maskery, Master Turner (where is the sarcasm emojo when you need one?) turned, yes turned, on a lathe, a rather nice pair of mills in the shape of wine bottles. A white one (ash), chardonnay-style shape for salt and a dark one, stained (I can't remmeber what wood it was, quite possibly ash again), claret-shaped for pepper. Complete with foil tops.
They are looking a bit shabby afer 20-odd years, but some friends recently admired them, so I want to make them a pair for the C-word.
Although I have quite a stash of boards, none of them are thick enough to get a cylinder of the required diameter, 65mm or so, from the blank.
However, I found, in the barn, a branch of a yew tree. Definitely branch, the centre of the growth rings is very close to one side, so definitely reaction wood. But it means I can get a 3" cylinder out of it without eating into the pith and risking a split. It looks and feels quite dry, it could have been in the barn for years.
Now I know that the berries and leaves of yew can be poisonous, but is the wood itself? If I make these mills out of it, am I going to kill my friends?
S
 
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I had to grin at your last sentence. Anybody answering it the wrong way could potentially be had up for conspiracy to murder.:ROFLMAO:

Alas, I cannot answer your question, knowing little about the toxicity of yew. If it gets too difficult, an AK-47 might be useful.
 
My dad turned a pair of yew salt and pepper grinders for me a few years ago. They're used regular and if he was trying to kill me, it hasn't worked!
 
I'm pretty sure there's an ancient proverb about eating stew from a bowl made of yew, I don't think it ended well.

While as you say, the berries and leaves are well known to be very poisonous, but I can't say that I've ever heard of anyone dying directly from the timber itself. I have heard of people working with it having severe reactions to it in regards to rashes, eye irritation, breathing difficulties, and so on... I would guess if it did transfer any poisonous traits to the salt or pepper it would only be in infinitesimal doses that the body would likely handle without issue.
 
The intended recipients are into homeopathy, so they are used to seeing results from implausibly small amounts of pharmacologically active materials...
Thank you all, I'll have a go and see how it turns out. See what I did there?
S
 
I personally would not use Yew wood for something that is likely to be in long term contact with anything to be eaten, even if it is ostensibly 'dry foodstuffs'

You could of course seal the inside bore with a couple of coats of Melamine reinforced Lacquer which is very resistant to leaking grape juice etc. in fruit bowls which would mitigate the propensity of Salt to be Hydroscopic by nature and prone to absorb.
 
CHJ said:
I personally would not use Yew wood for something that is likely to be in long term contact with anything to be eaten, even if it is ostensibly 'dry foodstuffs'

You could of course seal the inside bore with a couple of coats of Melamine reinforced Lacquer which is very resistant to leaking grape juice etc. in fruit bowls which would mitigate the propensity of Salt to be Hydroscopic by nature and prone to absorb.
Click to expand...
I did have some Melamine, Chestnut, IIRC, in a tin. I wonder if I still have it? If I do, there is no gurantee that it is still liquid.
 
Nice one Windows. That article is beautifully succinct and lays out the facts unambiguously.
What a pleasant relief from the the fevered foment of the publicity-seeking, multiple-posting, "influencers"...yes, there are a couple in Sawdust Land!
 
Windows said:
www.kew.org

Analysis of yew wood | Kew

Kew scientists investigate the occurrence of alkaloids in the heartwood of Taxus baccata (European yew).
www.kew.org www.kew.org
Click to expand...
That’s very interesting, thanks for posting.
I like turning yew for small gifts and have a ready supply from the cemetery next door. I wouldn’t use it for anything that came into prolonged contact with food or drink.

The article matches my experiences, when turning the branches to round stock (including of course the bark removal ) I’m very careful about dust extraction, at this stage, and always wear my power respirator. I’m even careful about cleaning up the shavings and wear gloves. I usually have a session processing stock for the stash. I do all of this because I have had minor skin reactions in the past.
When I subsequently make something from this I just use my normal dust extraction method.
 
yew can be stunning especially of you can get some of the white sapwood to show. I've been wanting to make salt and pepper post for some time but keep prevaricating as to what mechanism to use.
I'd be interested to see how you get on Steve.
 
Andy, my mechanisms came from Craft Supplies in Miller's Dale, so it givees you some idea about how old they are. I recently bought some replacement, ceramic, burrs, but I've not fitted them yet.
The mechanisms for this project came from Ali, because I couldn't find them anywhere else. We'll see how they fit.
My main problem now is remembering how I made the first pair, it was in a previous life!
 
Steve Maskery said:
.......
My main problem now is remembering how I made the first pair, it was in a previous life!
Click to expand...
They can be quite a pain to fit, I'm sure the last lot I had (a well intentioned gift) were designed to force you to consider purchasing the special tool from the same source.
 
I've bought a couple of crushgrind mechanisms with a plan to make a salt & pepper grinder once I've got some suitably sized wood (we've already got a crushgrind pepper mill and it is by far the best one I've ever used).

They seem to push for you to buy a custom tool to fit the mechanisms but it looks like something that could be home-made very easily.
 
When I last investigated making one I thought all the various sized holes could be made with forstner bits of which I have a few
 
AndyP said:
When I last investigated making one I thought all the various sized holes could be made with forstner bits of which I have a few
Click to expand...

I think that's mostly true with the crushgrind ones but (if memory serves) they expect a little undercut for the retaining clips. I think you can skip it & just glue the mechanism in, but alternatively a tool should be very easy to make.
 
There's no reason why the yew can't be lined with an insert made of another wood e.g. beech.
As regards the tool for grinding the recess, it's easily made out of an old Allen key or any other piece of suitable metal. Mine is glued into the end of a piece of broom handle - not pretty but it works.
Duncan
 
Ye gods, I'm a carp turner.
I've spent hours on my lathe in the last couple of days and so far I have one cylinder and a blank that feels like it's going to explode every time I touch it with a chisel. I've hacked of as much as I can with an axe, but it is still very unbalanced. Scary.
 
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