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by Kyle Ellison These tongs make it easy to serve pasta steamed vegetables, hot bread and salads with one hand. Steam heat and pressure have been used for centuries to bend wood into useful shapes like chair backs or musical instruments. Each pair of tongs is hand steamed and bent into shape until cool to create the distinctive springs. These springs keep the tongs open for the user, and allow tongs to fold flat for storage. "It was 1955. I could hardly wait to get my first pocketknife.... I grew up makikng things. Tools were central to the rural roots of my parents, and their tools were available to me. I sought out opportunities to make things, and was always the first kid at the camp craft table. I remember repeatedly asking, 'What does that do?'. I assumed that strong mechanical curiosity was normal and sought out old machinery just to take it apart to find of how it worked. In 1990, I had the opportunity to see my retired neighbor's workshop. Since Jim is totally blind, I was amazed to see his full set of woodworking tools. While we make salad tongs for holiday gifts, Jim taught me to use his tools. He also taught me that when it came to finding flaws in wood and sanding, the hand is often quicker than the eye. We had so much fun that we worked as a partnership for two years. At that point I bought him out and made my mid-life career crisis official. I am motivated by the challenge of designing and making useful kitchen tools with moving parts which are simple, durable and beautiful. My passion is designing and improving the jigs and fixtures for the machines in my shop. My creativity is expressed in designing not only the product, but also the process of making it. These tools in turn allow me to make tongs of consistent quality. My goal is to build household tools that last a lifetime and work so well that all the others are sent off to a yard sale." The Real Spring: What makes Kentucky Spring special: 1. Wooden springs that are at least half the length of the tongs. These are more difficult to cut, sand and steam bend, but they allow the tongs to open wider, are more durable and work more smoothly. 2. Rounded tips meet and match perfectly allowing good control from any angle for the rounded bottom of a bowl 3. Sanding, Sanding, Sanding! Every edge, corner and surface. There is more labor in the sanding than in any other aspect of making tongs - over 30 separate operations for each pair.
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