I know chop sticks are by far one of the least expensive things we use in bonsai, but I find the heavy duty bamboo skewers for shishkabobs and such are more versatile and even cheaper. For the price of a dozen chopsticks I can get 200 bbq skewers.... one package will last years. I also like the fact that the skewers have a sharp point on one end, its great for picking moss and dirt off bark, separating out small roots, etc. The other end is blunt and about the same size as a chopstick. And at about a penny apiece, I feel no guilt whatsoever using them hard then tossing them.

IMO a chopstick is a chopstick and a BBQ skewer a skewer. I am sure they both have their places, but a skewer to do what I do with a chopstick wouldn't hold up.

If we are trying to be frugal, every time I do Chinese I ask for chopsticks, this includes sushi. Sooooooooo my chopsticks don't cost me anything. I am still using one of my originals and it is going on 5 years. Can you say the same for skewers?

LOL .... here it comes...the great Chop Stick vs. BBQ skewer debate ...tickets on sale now!

To chime in on this and take a side....I have used both and prefer chop sticks for down and dirty work. Though bamboo BBQ skewers I find more use full for props and pegs. Because of their fibrous nature they are easier to strip the diameter down to the size I want when I am pegging a thread graft and such.

I have to agree with Rick on the ease of obtaining chop sticks...most Whole Food Markets have a sushi section and the chefs are more than happy to give a half a dozen away...per week....over a years time that is a lotta chop sticks...he says it good PR..lol

At $5 a chunk for sushi (yum) I don't get it much....... I also use the bamboo skewers. Espically when I was using them as watering guides, one package just aobut did all my plants! And for $2...... I'll take it.

We don't have whole foods markets here......... heck the chinese places you have to ask for chopsticks cause they're so americanized...

LOL oh my. I really didnt mean to start a battle! I DO use both, but since our chinese food places charge fifty cents for a crappy set of chopsticks (not even as good as the skewers!) and whole foods is unheard of in this area, I use the cheaper skewers wherever I can and save the chopsticks for the 'down and dirty'

I have one set of chopsticks that I have had for about 4 yrs, I just wash it after use, and put them away with the rest of the tools.

Having said that, i use skewers, bits of wire etc for anything that is going to be long term, ie, marking the front of a tree in developement

(Of course at various times, i will pull these out to use for something else, and forget where the front was going to be...LOL)

weeble wrote:LOL oh my. I really didnt mean to start a battle! I DO use both, but since our chinese food places charge fifty cents for a crappy set of chopsticks (not even as good as the skewers!) and whole foods is unheard of in this area, I use the cheaper skewers wherever I can and save the chopsticks for the 'down and dirty'

... as I. No intent to duel here. I use skewers for holding down trees in a plantation setting, to hold wire in cascade pots where only a main hole exist, or trees that are difficult to secure by any other means.

Wow! $.50!! Here it seems they are happy when a Westerner request chopsticks and it is an honour to them that you requested such an eating implement, and oblige you with a smile not an extended palm.