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| A little more kolrossing |
I had a bit of a panic last week. When I was kid, my big brother Adrian, who was into all things pathology, used to get interesting and exotic insects that he wanted to preserve or make into microscope slides and would put them in a box for a few days with laurel leaves, explaining that the cyanide in the leaves would reverse the effects of rigor mortis and enable him to work on a newly pliable insect exoskeleton. Remembering this fact it suddenly occurred to me that if laurel contains cyanide, it's probably not a good idea to make eating implements from it.
I have since scoured the internet and found a number of confusing (there is a wide variety of laurels and I don't know what the common or garden British variety is called) and contradictory articles. Is there anyone out there who can answer this question once and for all for me?
If you are interested in the Japanese whittling knife in the photos, by the way, have a look at my other blog where I have included a short post about it:
http://holtheathwoodentreen.blogspot.co.uk/
