I used my shell noodle maker I made a year or two ago as a pestle and it made it so much easier to make aioli, so I made specialty pestle today just for aiolis and pestos.
As you can see, the pestle that this mortar came with was so thin that it was difficult to mash the garlic well enough. Welp, now I’ll be able to make a lot of garlicky stuff, 
Also, I made it so both sides can be used. One side is thinner, and the other side is wider.
I love how you come up with solutions using crafting!
Just last night, TheMisterT said how much he loves to use his mortar and pestle to grind Szechuan peppers - it’s a tool that is under appreciated in a lot of kitchens, I think, and it’s WONDERFUL that you’ve made yours even more useful by making your own pestle for the specific job of smashing garlic!
Can’t get too much garlicky goodness!!!
The patterns on the wood are so cool; are they knots? If so, do they make the wood harder to work?
a little. I first used a hammer and ohissel to shape it, but bcause of the knots I was only able to do a very rough shape. Then I used that belt sander I got a few years ago. It took longer than I would have liked, but meh, the wood wasn’t a hard wood so it wasn’t too long…(hence why it doesn’t look too pretty, as I was getting way too sore standing while sanding, heh).
