No, you’re not going to save the world by using reusable chopsticks instead of those throwaway wooden ones you get with your Chinese takeout. It is, however, prudent to do away with disposable items when reusable alternatives are readily available. The ChopChucks will let you do that, while also pulling double duty as miniature nunchucks to let you practice your ninja skills on the go.
That’s right, these reusable chopsticks can go from dumping orange chicken, egg rolls, and fried rice into your mouth like any version of the traditional Chinese utensil, all while transforming into fun toy version of erstwhile deadly karate sticks. Yes, it’s not a real nunchaku that you can use to strike at aggressors and hold them down with cleverly-placed grips, but it’s functional enough for freestyle exhibitions to show off your spinning, twirling, and stick-waving skills.
The ChopChucks are all-metal chopsticks, so this should be a lot more durable than the standard eating utensils that come with your order of General Tso, with a design that tapers towards the business end for effectively gripping into chow mein, pork balls, and all sorts of dumplings. Except, each stick is designed to break apart into two halves, with the tapered half going into the hollow thicker section, allowing it to pack as small as a pair of pens for conveniently slipping into your pocket. That means, you can take these chopsticks anywhere you go while keeping it snugly inside a pants, shirt, or jacket pocket.
When the chopsticks are collapsed, you can attach a pair of tubes connected by a string onto the open section, effectively turning the erstwhile chopsticks into mini-nunchucks. At this size, of course, the darn thing is rather useless for ninja self-defense (you’re not going to hurt anyone with it), although the outfit have designed a variety of techniques that you can apply to use it as a skill toy.
According to the creators, the ChopChucks roster of techniques borrow heavily from popular fidget activities, such as begleri beads and pen spinning, as well as the knife play from balisong. They offer up techniques such as vertical rollups, aerial control, and finger rotations, among a whole host of others that should keep you busy during those times you’re a little too stressed from all the Zoom meetings you’ve been taking throughout the day. And yes, you should be able to figure out your own tricks, too, so it could be a fun way to spice up your roster of fidget toys both at home and in the office.
Construction is either stainless steel (raw or stonewashed finish) or titanium, so this thing is going to be tough, regardless of which build you choose to get. They should be pretty easy to clean as well, since the tapered section (the part that actually touches any food) is completely smoothed out, so there are no grooves or corners where food can get stuck in. It measures 4.6 inches when collapsed and 7.5 inches when outfitted into its full nunchuks glory.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the ChopChucks. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $28.