Most of the candles sold in stores today are made with a cotton wick, sometimes with paper filaments interlaced in the cotton for a most stable and consistent burn. The paper also helps prevent the wick from curling and becoming lost inside the wax as it solidifies, after the candle is blown out. But cotton … Read more
Purpleheart is a rather unique hardwood, mostly due to its color. While the color everyone associates with purpleheart is purple, true to its name, the wood can vary somewhat, it can also be greyish/brown. Generally speaking, the purple color really doesn’t appear when freshly cut, but upon exposure the wood turns more purplish. The use … Read more
Acacia has a unique history amongst woods, in that the furnishings of the Biblical tabernacle, sometimes referred to as the “Tabernacle of Moses” were made out of acacia wood. Some translations of the Bible use the term “shittam tree” rather than acacia, but the shittam is one of the many variants of the acacia. But … Read more
The balance bike has been developed as a replacement for putting training wheels on a bike. While there are those who speak against them, one of the strongest points in their favor is that small children naturally try to use their bike without pedaling it, while learning. Allowing them to follow that natural tendency to … Read more
The pecan tree is a member of the hickory family, making pecan wood and hickory wood essentially the same. While there are differences between the two, it takes a close look at the end grain, with a magnifying glass to find them. Most vendors lump the two together, listing them as Hickory/Pecan, both as solid … Read more