Featured Pure Silver Chopsticks

I bought these on eBay. They arrived this week.



They've clearly got significant age, and while they were advertised as "sterling silver", they had no hallmarks on them of any kind. This isn't unusual with antique Asian (especially Chinese) silver, but I still wanted to be sure.

I took them to my local jeweler and he did an assay-test, which confirmed that they were 999 silver.

After checking everywhere and confirming that they weren't marked, for a small fee, he agreed to put the millesimal purity on the handles, so that people know what they are now...

 

he could have put a decimal point.....

when they finally leave your hands......someone out there will wonder why they are marked with the Devil's 666...........

just sayin...

 

THEY TEST FOR DEMONIC POSSESSION!!

 

There was a hybrid on the road in front of me yesterday with a 666 plate. I figured satan had a cool hotrod or something but no, the devils in disguise.

 

I have no idea where your chopsticks came from. However Koreans love to use .999 so just wanted to mention it’s a possible source. They are cool btw! I always remembered hearing that many/most Asians (maybe it was more specific than that and I’ve forgotten) didn’t like to put metal in their mouths. Has anyone else heard this? When I see metal chopsticks it makes me wonder.

 

The Japanese use them...but not for moving food to mouth. They're called Hibashi, I think, and are used to tend hot charcoal in Hibachis. I have several vintage or antique pair. I'll post 'em in Metalware soon.
Those Silver 'sticks are lovely, an' I agree with you about their probable Korean origin.

 

hummmmm....I've heard the same thing.....whether true or not ?

 

Speaking as an Asian, I've never heard about us not shoving metal in our mouths.

You're probably thinking of the Confucian dictate of not having knives at the dinner-table, since knives were seen as weapons, and had no place during polite dining.

 

Koreans use metal spoons,chop sticks are usually for picking up the side dishes and putting them into the meal bowl.

 

What I heard was definitely in relation to metal in mouth vs. knives at table. I mean I know many Asian people, including the Chinese woman woman I lived with for five years. I’ve travelled to Asia. I know that plenty of Asian people currently put metal in their mouths on a daily basis. I’m not even saying the metal thing is true but if it were it could be one of many traditions or behaviors of a bygone era. I’m catholic and I’m sure there are many catholic traditions that I don’t currently observe. Know what I’m saying? It could be bologna to start with though for sure.

 

Well I decided to do a quick google and see nothing that references the no metal in mouth thing. God only knows where I picked that up but it’s something that’s been in my head since I was pretty young. Not that it was a current behavior but something traditional that was once followed. I mean my father told me that paper was made from clouds when I was a kid and I carried that around for years. Hard to discern fact from fiction sometimes when you’re a kid and there’s no internet.

 

The chain linking the pair is a curiosity for me. Is it a 'training' feature, to be removed at some level of proficiency? I have a bamboo pair with a similar linking chain, all carved from one piece. I'll post pics in the 'Discussion' forum, soon.

They're up now!

 

Chained chopsticks were very very common. I have half a dozen pairs or more, of antique chopsticks in silver, and they're ALL chained.

It was to stop you losing one of the sticks by accident. After all - they're SILVER, and therefore, expensive. You don't want one to go missing.

It was a common practice with personal-use chopsticks.

 

And while I'm on it - there's NO truth to the fantasy that silver chopsticks detect poison.

Silver chopsticks are silver chopsticks for the same reason that European silverware is silverware.

Because it's fancy.