Be it noodles or a wanton soup, the delicacy goes high on the style quotient if eaten with chopsticks. Ever wondered as to how chopsticks are made? From wood-cutting to wood-finishing, making Chinese chopsticks takes you through a journey, which is artistic and tasteful at the same time.

The following steps are followed in making Chinese chopsticks :

•    The first is that of milling the wood. Here, you take a rectangular wooden block, which has gone through the process of curing, drying or aging. Depending on the number of chopsticks required and the length used, you can decide on the dimensions of the rectangular wooden block required to make the chopsticks. Then, take a band saw and start milling the wood.

•    If you want to give some contrast or design to your chopsticks, you can use the technique of wood-inlaying. Here, you take a sheet of another variety of wood, dig out a trench in your parent wooden block and place the sheet in the trench with a layer of glue, so that the sheet is perfectly inlaid. Allow this to dry for some time.

•    After the inlaid wood has totally dried up, you move to cutting the blanks. Blanks; meaning that the inlaid wood is cut into rectangular pieces, with the length (0.25 inches) and breadth (0.64 cm) of the chopsticks. The milled wooden block thus yields a number of rectangular blanks. All of which form the right framework of your chopsticks.

•    The next procedure in making Chinese chopsticks is shaping the rectangular blanks. Here, it is yours and your customer’s preference as to how you want your chopsticks to shape up: with square base, on the whole cylindrical, or cylindrical thinning to a pointed end. The tools used for shaping can be handheld or mechanical, suiting to your convenience.

•    After the shaping process, the chopsticks have to be given a smooth finish, so that they don’t splinter, while eating. For this, you use sandpaper and scrape your chopsticks carefully yet thoroughly. The process of scraping has to be doubly done in the case of hand-made chopsticks using different grades of sand-paper.

•    Now, your chopsticks are ready for the finishing touch. You give them a gloss by dipping them in lacquer (a natural sap found in one breed of sumac), which is used as a decorative wood-finish in Chinese and Japanese furnishing, after which they are hung for drying. Some fine –wood chopsticks can be given a polish with oil, which brings out the texture of the wood and makes it attractive. After applying the oil, you can buff the chopsticks either by hand or with the help of a machine.

You can play duet with your Chinese chopsticks with our quick ‘n’ easy steps on how Chinese chopsticks are made.

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