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$4.99 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Silver-Stainless-Steel-Name-Business-Card-Holders-Case-/150640558448
$8.99 http://www.amazon.com/Personalized-Stainless-Business-Card-Holder/dp/B0088QAC0G
$11.49 http://www.amazon.com/Business-Name-Holder-Stainless-Steel/dp/B008BW41EK/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_2
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The Mastrad "okra" Silicone Oven Mit was a Christmas gift from many years ago. It's pretty magical. Its thick silicone construction and griping "ribs" allow you to confidently pick up almost anything of any temperature without worry. I don't recall anything ever feeling warm through it let alone hot. In addition to protecting your whole hand from heat and splatter its 11 inch length (with a 17 inch version available) protects your wrist and the parts of your forearm as well.
All that protection comes at a price, however. You lose almost all sense of touch through the thick mit. It's an awsome tool for the sighted. For the blind it's helpful with big, easy to identify objects and places with points of reference like the stovetop or sink. When working in the oven, where almost everything is hot, it leaves way too much skin exposed and makes telling the difference between the rack and the cookie sheet difficult. This limitation can be removed to some extent with the use of Kevlar as described below.
I picked this trick up from fire performer's practice sessions where kevlar is used both as flaming wicks and fire resistant safety gear. With some limitations Kevlar gloves and Kevlar Sleeves can go a long way toward making it safer to handle hot tasks like baking.
The first limitation is time. Fire performers use kevlar sleeves to protect them breifly from the fire. Like when some fancy move goes wrong and a blistering hot chain ties the flaming wick against their skin. They rely on safety spotters with wet towel and fire extinguishers to handle the flame if things can't be corrected very quickly. They only rely on the kevlar to give them those few seconds to recover without burns and without bringing their practice or performance to a close. Kevlar's super-power is that it doesn't burn. It does got hot, however, and can only slow the conduction of heat not stop it. It only buys you a little time. But for many purposes that's enough.
The second tlimitation is liquids. Most kevlar products are made of woven fibers and will wick liquids into them. This property plus kevlar being nearly fire-proof makes it idea as wicking for holding fuel and sustaining flames for fire performances. When wet, however, kevlar transfers heat much, much faster than it does dry. Wet kevlar won't protect you much at all. Worse, dry kevlar gloves and sleeves splashed with hot water or grease will wick it right to you skin and hold it there. So staty away from liquids with kevlar. Don't use it as thermal protection wet and don't use it where it could get wet.
The kevlar sleeves linked above come in several lengths and in either one or two ply. We use the 2 ply 24 inch for the length. The 24 inch doesn't seem to come in one ply, which would otherwise probably be adequate. 24 inches is enough to protect from wrist to sholder. That plus a cotton shirt sleeve is enough to protect everything but your hand.
The kevlar gloves linked above come in various sizes (small, medieum, large, extra large) and several thickneses, lightweight, medium weight, "high heat", etc. Obviously pick the size that fits you best. The thickness is a matter of personal taste. Since they're pretty cheap I suggest you buy a couple and see what works best for you. Medium weight is probably the most ideal comprimise between safety, durability, unctionality and tactile sensation. But it is a comprimise.
The lightweight gloves are a very loose weave. Loose enough that your skin is visible through them, more in some places than others. Not enough to let your skin touch anything but enough to make one wonder. We've also had several gloves that arrived with small holes in the finger tips and at various seams. Those were big enough to get someone burnt. Calling Northern Safetey quickly cleared up the problem and they sent out replacments. We're not sure if those were manufacturing defects or a sign of how fragile the lightweight gloves are. We mention these flaws since, despite the added "risk" Caitlin prefers the feel of the lightweight gloves. Just be careful with them, Idealy have them inspected before you use them and now and again between uses.
Combined with the Silicone Mit above you've got a one-two punch. Kevlar give you safer access to the whole oven and then the silicone mit to enable you to handle things that require longer exposure to heat and need to be kept away from the kevlar - like a pan full of baking chiken.
Oh... And Northern Safetey generally sells kevlar gloves for pretection from cuts handling while sharp materials, using knives, etc. We haven't tried them in that capacity. But they should work fine since that's what they're actually sold for.
Can't take credit for this trick. It was "borrowed" from some Microsoft Forum which I'd credit directly but I have long since lost track of the URL. Long story short: Get a 6 by 3 dozen-and-a-half egg carton then use the presense or absence of something in each pocket to represent 1 and zero bits respectively. Three rows of "bits" gives you enough for two "values" to add, subtract, AND, OR, XOR, etc and one row for an "answer" all lined up one over the other. Alas, the "by six" part only gives you 6 "bits." You could staple or glue on more pockets. Or perhaps go for larger egg cartons, there are a few out there. But for the most part anything that works on 4 bits works on 6 bits and 8 bits and 16 bits and 32 bits and so on... Microsoft said they used sugar packets to represent bits (well the ones anyway). We didn't like that much. Hard to 'see" since they didn't want to stand up. So we ttried little wodden balls from Hobby Lobby which are easier to "see" but sometimes harder to dig out of the pockets. Either are servicable. Other options come to mind, chess pieces maybe? Still, any way you do it it's quick, easy, cheap and redilly available. Alas, no pics (not that you'd need 'em) because our version was retired long ago and replaced by the "Lipstick Riser" version.
Acrylic Lipstick Riser, available from The Container Store as product ID 10030982 for $7.99 (as of 5/14/2013). Yes it's tecchnically for lipstick. But it also happens to be 3 rows deep by 8 columns wide and every row is at a slightly different height, hence the "riser" part of the name. Each lipstick pocket is ???? X ??? and ??? deep.
Oak rod (diam? Length?) from ? cut to ? sanded
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