Ha, ha, that is funny! I have old pine that I refinished. It is beautiful. I used my Silpat mat to roll out pie crusts, and I can see the very faint grid marks from it on my counters. Patina! You got to love it.
Diane

All of us anal retentive freaks need to take a lesson! Relax and enjoy!

:-)

If it makes you feel any better, I put a little gouge in my 10 gauge stainless steel wrapped plywood counter doing something similar--trying to unjam a heavy duty staple gun with a hammer...patina happens! :P

I had a jar of salsa I was unsuccessfully trying to open. I used to bang the edge of the lid on my formica. I was at a loss of what to do because I'm not doing that on my wood or marble. I handed it to DH to open but I will have to find a surface in my house to bang jars on when I'm home alone. I do have one of those rubber things to open jars but sometimes they just need a good whack on a counter.

Romy, I open lids easily with a thick rubber band from broccoli stretched around the lid.

It's kind of crazy that we're afraid of our counters!

Haha, mayflowers, ain't that the truth. I saw my DH doing push-ups off the edge of our granite yesterday and told him to stop. All the cracked and broken granite posts have me scared for the health of my countertops!!

"I will have to find a surface in my house to bang jars on when I'm home alone"

I tap the edge of the jar with the handle of a screwdriver, and use a "Master Wrench" basically a rubber strip with a pry handle on it.

For anyone having a hard time opening a jar-usually if you take a small spoon or somethingÃÂ ÃÂ that you can just get under the edge of the lid, and pry or twist the spoon just a little to "pop" the seal, the jar should twist right open without too much effort. I find this usually works for me.

Maybe that could be a new product to market--a wall mounted tile or something made for banging jars on.

I've never banged a jar to open it. Hot water, spoon under lid, or rubber grip seems to do the job.

Love patina but yes it's stressful when new and in process!

This post was edited by snookums2 on Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 19:00

Wow. I had no idea there was any way other than mine (bang edge of jar with handle of knife) to break seal to open jars. Spoon under lid makes *so* much sense! Like, of course (!) the teacher doesn't really live at the school, and sometimes visits the grocery store like a real person.

The Janka hardness test measures the resistance of a sample of wood to denting and wear.
Janka Hardness-
Red Alder is 580.
Cumaru- Brazilian Teak 3580.
Hard Maple 1450.
Ash 1320.
White Oak 1350.
Cherry 995.

Here is a link that might be useful: Janka hardness values

You learn something new every day on GW. I will being trying all these new methods to open jars.
Lazygardens - further explain the "Master Wrench", please.

This post was edited by romy718 on Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 20:39

Cool chart Dan! I used Mesquite for my bar top counters, I realized it was hard when cutting and routing it, but wow 2345 is really hard!

Patina is a fine thing. :) Better a dent in a wood top than a chip in laminate or granite, eh? (If you had to have one or the other, that is.) Are you sure they're in the wood and not just in the finish? Not that it really matters and you have a great attitude about it, just wondering.

I have posted about this on the Cooking forum, but I use a Kuhn Rikon jar opener that is fantastic. They make more than one; mine is white, inexpensive, I think it's called The Gripper. Best jar opener I've found, especially for when you can grip tightly with only one hand. Lid-banging and hot water have never worked well for me.

hahaa! I have alder cabinets, and since I prefer the (pre)-distressed look, the cabinet maker literally beat the cabinets with a chain to mark it up. I should have let my 3 young boys go to work on it and save him the trouble! lol

I just take what we in the south call a "church key" otherwise known as a can opener and work the tip of the sharp point under the lid until it pops the vacuum seal and then the lid just screws off easily.

For lifting sealed jar lids (breaking the seal), I have a jarkey which works very well. I see they now cost quite a bit more than when I got mine, but I'd replace mine if it broke or I lost it. It works well on canning jar lids, too. Link below

Here is a link that might be useful: Jarkey

"Master Wrench" = rubber strap wrench

You wrap it around the lid and have a handle for leverage. I have weak hand strength, sometimes none, and every advantage I can get helps.

how about your cutting board for banging? I do that now.....after I learned the hard way with my black walnut counter. ouch. Yes, patina. I use that word often around my counter.

I usually just use a paint can opener haha. I somehow ended up with three so one hangs out in my kitchen now.

You should see the patina on my Mariana soapstone. If I raise my voice, it scratches. ;-)

I bought a Brix JarKey today to compensate for my weak hand. It's like a miracle! It beats my Kuhn-Rikon jar opener, and is even better than the Mr. Rogers method of banging the lid in four places around the perimeter of the lid against a hard surface.