It's been a wild ride since posting the Ergonomic Skillet Handle. The press, the money and fame, often it was hard to remain grounded, but in some ways it feels like it was just yesterday. I thought the whole ordeal was over and that life could return to normal, but one question I got still stuck with me, gnawing at the back of my mind. I don't remember who asked it, might've been Kimmel, might've been the Nobel Committee, but it was this: "Uh... isn't it just a stick?"
They were right of
course. How could one stick heal the divides of our nations? How could one stick end famine and provide clean
energy for generations to come? No... it couldn't... that would unquestionably take two sticks. After a grueling redesign that lasted at least five minutes, the idea for the Skillet Stick 2.0 was born. It's heftier, it's more sturdy, it has an integral pan scraper, the materials are easier to source, and it takes a bit more time to make as it turns out.
This version functions pretty much identically to the
Ergonomic Skillet Handle but instead of using a forking branch, it uses a thicker chunk of
wood with another wood pin pressed into it. The pin can be made from fairly thick wood as well, so that large flats can be added to the part passing through the slot on the skillet handle, which makes the whole thing very sturdy.
Not too much to say in addition to the pictures. The pin is a half inch diameter shaved down from about a one inch branch to get the large flats. The pin goes in at a 45deg angle and I charred it first to pre-shrink and harden it a little. The top of the handle is cut to be a pan scraper. Both pieces are serviceberry in this case, and hardwood is probably the right call so that the pin doesn't break or egg-out the hole in the handle.
I made this just because I wanted something reliable for personal use when cooking with the skillet outdoors at Dogstar. I tested it on some
cast iron cookware down at base camp as well and it worked on all the numbered pieces I found (#8, #9, and a few #10s) which all had the same slot size in the cast handle and were from a variety of brands. Other pieces without numbers though had different handles so it wouldn't attach. Basically you need to make it to the pan you have. This was supposed to be a tiny side project, so I think the revisions stop here for now.
This is part of the increasingly silly
MoPID series of permaculture innovations that I am working on during my time at
Wheaton Labs. Check out the
thread if you'd like to follow along.
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