Hornbeam foodsafe?

[duncanh]

I need to make a baby's rattle and have run out of sycamore. I do have some hornbeam and oak of the right dimensions and I'd prefer to use the hornbeam because of the similar colour to sycamore.
I've looked online and can't find much info about food/toy safety re. hornbeam and my timber books don't mention food use. I did find one reference to butchers chopping blocks once being made from hornbeam but that's about it.

Any ideas?

Failing that I may have to go with the oak. Perhaps the high tannin content will stop it getting chewed too much

 

[chipmunk]

Hi Duncan,
The normal woods for baby's rattles would be fruit woods such as cherry or perhaps beech - I'm not so sure about hornbeam or oak.

Hornbeam is very tough to break which is obviously good, but from my experience it's so tough that if you turn it thin and it does break it may leave very sharp edges.

HTH
Jon

 

[Paul.J]

This any use Duncan?