Hasta La Ideas

Once upon a time, human beings were biodegradable. But with modern-day corpses shot full of embalming chemicals before being sealed inside metal coffins, it will be a long time, if ever, before those bodies go back into the earth.

The alternate method of cremation, of course, turns human bodies into ash; and now Swiss company Algordanza has taken it a step further, by figuring out how to compress that ash into diamonds. For US $5,000 to $22,000, your remains, or those of a loved one, can be turned into as many as nine diamonds, presumably depending on the volume of ash. And what’s fascinating is that there is some color variation:

Most of the stones come out blue, [Algordanza CEO Rinaldo] Willy says, because contains trace amounts of boron, an element that bone formation. Occasionally, though, a diamond pops out white, yellow or close to black – Willy’s not sure why. Regardless, he says, “every diamond from each person is slightly different. It’s always a unique diamond.”

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What’s made out of leather, already broken-in, and gathering dust in the closet of most red-blooded American males of a certain age? A baseball glove. And for every one of you that still pulls yours out in the spring, there are probably nine of us that prefer to wear out the leather in our armchairs.

A company called Fielder’s Choice Goods has been getting their hands on this worn-leather bonanza and turning ex-mitts into wallets, belts and keychains.

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In the ’90s, David Munson was working as a volunteer English teacher in Mexico when he caught the bag bug. While searching for the perfect leather bag, he realized it didn’t exist, and set out to design his own. Long story short, here in 2014 he runs Saddleback Leather, which manufactures a high-quality line of leather bags, backpacks, briefcases, wallets, luggage, accessories and more. Each product is designed to be so durable and “over-engineered” that your heirs will “fight over it when you’re dead,” as the company motto goes.

Munson, by the way, is pissed off. After spending years learning the trade and building out his company piece by piece, he now has to deal with unscrupulous folks knocking off his products. He came up with a rather brilliant way to address this problem head-on: He made a video to his competitors showing them how to knock his bags off, incidentally educating the consumer on where the quality and design of his products, versus the competition’s, starts to diverge.

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At eight-minutes-plus, this production methods video is longer than the average internet denizen’s 2.5-minute attention span, but anyone who makes things out of wood will find it fascinating. This unnamed Hungarian craftsperson shows you every step as he goes from felled tree to cutting board, and what’s most interesting is the dedicated series of jigs, rigs and fixtures he’s come up with to speed up his production, as well as the combination of machines he uses. Be sure to check out:

The fresh floor-embedded pneumatic lift he uses to get the logs up to the bandsaw at 1:20

His lath drying rack at 3:29 and spinning drying rack at 3:47

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The Canadiano is freaking awesome. It’s a single-serving coffee brewing device, for those of us who live alone, or those of you who live with other people but enjoy being selfish, and it’s made out of wood.

Or one of three woods, specifically. You can order the Canadiano in Cherry, Walnut or Maple, and while we’re not sure if this part is true or just hooey, the manufacturer claims that “the wooden piece will remember each cup of coffee you make.”

Overtime the coffee oils of your specific beans and roast will be absorbed into the wood and be a part of your morning coffee experience… Each type of wood is matched with different beans and roasts from around the world. We encourage brewing single origin beans in the Canadianos. The Walnut edition is crafted and designed for use with darker roasts and earthier flavors such as beans from South East Asia. Maple and Cherry is designed for beans with slight citrus hints and nutty taste.

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