Toothpicks (new or used) can be used for a variety of things. Square picks are the same size as the plastic ties on N scale track, you can get two standard sized ties from each pick. They can also be used for timbers, in a lumber yard for example. Round picks can be used for short poles and for guard posts along a highway.
Yes and some restaurants give away really nice round toothpicks in small boxes of the sort that used to contain the matches they’d give away to smokers. (Amended post: of the sort that Mike Lehman pictures below.)
I have also saved what’s left of the wooden matchsticks that I use to start the fire in the fireplace. And a few years ago in a park I came across a treasure trove of wood sticks that had been part of an amateur fireworks display of some sort – surprisingly decent quality wood of a size perfect for timbers used to brace open loads.
At craft and hobby stores, looks for two products I have enjoyed using: Forster Mini-Sticks and Loew Cornell “Woodsies” mini dowels. They are good quality wood, evenly formed and consistent in size and shape (which toothpicks not always are), and can save money compared to chopping down more expensive “scale” lumber.
Dave Nelson
I took advantage of their similarity to railroad ties to make an N-Scale retaining wall.
On my old HO Colorado Western, I used kitchen match sticks, cut to length and stained with Tru-Scale tie stain, to line the pit for my gallows type turntable. It looked quite good, especially since I also stained my scratchbuilt turntable with the same stain (January, '74, Railroad Model Craftsman–under my model writing pseudonym, "Victor D. Heywood).
Deano
Hi Armyvet!
Welcome to the forum! [#welcome]
Great suggestion. Steven Otte from Model Railroader has a current thread on how to model inexpensively. You might consider posting your idea there too.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/239243.aspx
(To make the link work, highlight it, then right click on it, then select ‘Open Link’ or something similar from the drop down menu).
Dave
Richard:
That looks really good!
Dave
Absolutely, tooth picks are great for many uses. I’ve even found them good for cleaning between my teeth, when I can’t find my dental floss![:P]
The toothpicks I have in the house are square/round combinations ones, somewhat unsuitable for modeling ties or boards or whatnot. They are on average .080 inch in thickness, about 7 inches in HO scale.
Since that style doesn’t particularly look like anything prototypical, instead I think small and only use them for mundane purposes as applying small dots of CA, white glue, or paint to surfaces when building models as needed. I also use them to hold small detail parts that have holes in them (e.g. truck chassis, excavator buckets, etc) for painting and detailing.
I seem to recall plastic round plastic toothpicks with grooves in the non-pointed top end, which could nicely serve as ornamental fence posts of the type used in post and chain barrier fences. Since I haven’t seen any of those sort of toothpicks since I was a kid in the 1970s, I did a google search to see if they are still available. Instead I found that us posters in this thread were simpy not thinking big enough; we are NOT thinking Titanium Toothpick big! (and yes, before you ask, there are gold toothpicks available, but who wants that soft mallable metal when you can have strong titanium! Don’t waste time with diamond either, that’s just useful to decorate the otherwise dead-common silver and platnium toothpicks).
I found these at an Asian food grocery. I think that label is in Korean. However, many cultures have food that is served in small portions, stuck together with a toothpick in some cases, so you may browse such places for other vriants that could be useful.
The toothpick
I use them mostly for old school highway guardposts. Paint them flat white, then use a black paint marker to stripe them with.
I can’t think of anything I’ve actually modeled with a toothpick, but I keep them in the trainroom and in the workroom. They are great for applying small amounts of glue.
One of the items I use square toothpicks to build is track bumpers/bumping posts…
I don’t know about anyone else, but using used toothpicks is something I don’t want anything to do with. What’s next used floss for telephone pole wires. Sorry, but anything that was in someone’s mouth, I’ll pass on it.
woodman
I didn’t see any reference to using ‘used’ toothpicks. I’m pretty sure everyone who is using them for modelling purposes are using fresh ones.
Dave
Oh, I don’t know, Dave. Those Korean toothpicks are pretty up-market. I’m only allowed to use used ones, which are made from the unchewed but drooled on other end, so it’s taken me sometime to get those guard posts up. We’ve lost 3 jeeps between Eureka and Animas Forks so far, hideous crash and burns that left 7 HO people in the burn unit. All the LandCruisers come through OK, for some reason. I’m applying for permission to use new toothpicks in order to get the road in shape…[;)]
I asked Doc Adams about the sanitary issues involved and he advised the high UV content at altitude pretty much microwaves all the nasty stuff after a week or two anyway.[xx(]
I would like to get some of the black and copper dental floss, though. I hear it’s all the fashion with dem kidz these days.
Mike
[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
How long did you say it took for the drool to dry?
Dave
With the low humidity up there and the wind, about 2 minutes.
Use for barbed wire fence posts and the old 50s style post and wire cable highway guardrails.
Wayne [;)][:P]
Armyvet,
I use flat toothpicks as glue applicators. I take a sharp blade to whittle down the tip to however thin I want it. Whittled down toothpicks also make great oil applicators.
In the picture below, I am using a toothpick as a hold-down while I solder a brakewheel staff to a bracket I made for one of my C&O caboose projects that I introduced in another thread.
But my favorite use of toothpicks is on my 1949 C&O New River Subdivision in the basement. I use double-ended square toothpicks cut in half, stained with Minwax dark walnut to skewer polyfiber puffs for planting.
The next picture shows a bag of “trunks” ready for use. Each “tree” has one stained toothpick trunk pushed through and then the whole shebang was stabbed into the black painted styrofoam base.
I know, you ask: Why not just glue it down? Answer: because I like the flexibility of reusing everything if I have to “deforest”. Actually, the real reason is that I am weird and enjoy the idea that each “tree” has an actual wood “trunk”. [;)]
In this last shot you can see that the “trunks” are not at all noticeable, un