kscans

Chapter 130 - Particle Board 2. Production

Now that I could make particle board, it seemed the wood shortage, at least a part of it, might be resolved.

"I can make do with this for some of the paneling... but what else could I use it for?"

It was particle board I had gone to the trouble of making. Could I use it to replace the things I had been making do with using earth magic because I lacked wood? I looked around for potential candidates...

"A cutting board, huh... I was using a slab made with earth magic until now..."

I hadn't had any spare boards that could be used for a cutting board, so I had no choice but to substitute one made with earth magic. But it felt far too hard and I worried it would damage my knives, so I replaced it with one made of particle board. I wondered if it would be okay for work involving water, but I decided to think of it as part of the experiment. At the very least, it should be kinder to my knives. I also took the opportunity to replace my kitchen knife's handle with a particle board one. A stone handle was chilly to the touch in winter, but since particle board was derived from wood, it didn't feel so cold in my hand. It was a small thing, but surprisingly, it was hard to ignore emotionally.

"A warm material really is important, isn't it."

As I said that, I had a realization. If we were talking about warmth, then bath tools were the obvious choice. I would replace my earth magic washbasin with one made of particle board.

Let me explain Yuri's bathing situation for a moment.

As is the nature of a Japanese person, Yuri could not compromise on the existence of a bath. In the beginning, he simply made do by soaking in a bathtub made with earth magic. After all, at first he had no soap or body scrubbers, so there was nothing else he could do. Later, he remembered the Life Magic spell, Cleanse, and found a way to wash off dirt, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. The first thing he found was a substitute for a body scrubber. It was a plant with large, fibrous leaves like a taro, and when he used dark magic to rot it and extract the leaf fibers, it became a substitute for a loofah. Since Cleanse could basically only remove surface dirt, securing a body scrubber was a big deal, both hygienically and emotionally. After that, he found plants containing saponin, made soap from animal fat and ash, and gradually, Yuri's bath life began to resemble that of his previous life in Japan...

"The one thing I could never manage was a wash pail..."

Since he could not obtain wood or plastic, he had to use washbasins and tubs made with earth magic, but they were terribly heavy and difficult to use. They became even heavier with water in them, forcing him to use a smaller washbasin, but it was still inconvenient. Even though it was particle board, obtaining a wood-based material he could use freely finally allowed him to get an easy-to-use washbasin. As for whether it would rot more easily than regular wood, that was something he would just have to find out by actually using it.

"What else... the sawhorse in the workshop, maybe? I guess it would be fine if I reinforced it. I could also make some simple shelves."

The current Yuri considered making furniture like bookshelves, but he didn't have enough small items to put on them. There was no need to force it, so he put it off for later.

"But small boxes would be useful for various things. It doesn't have a wood grain, but that won't be noticeable if I paint over it."

I'll think about paints the next time I go to Laurenzen.