SOLIGT12" Sauerkraut Pounder for Mason Jars Vegetable Fermentation- One Piece of Solid Wood

Quality wooden kraut packer.nice, for gallon n quart jars .

Love it! It has been a game changer for making my sauerkraut! I use it all the time!

Wonderful and good quality wood. Don’t hesitate on this one.

Works like I expected. Would recommend

EDIT: After an *amazing* customer service experience, I want to change my rating of this product to 5 stars. Shortly after leaving the review below, I was contacted by the company and sent a replacement at absolutely no cost. The new pounder has a slightly more pronounced bevel than the first one and after using it to make another batch of kraut this weekend, I'm happy to say it performed beautifully! Wood is a natural product and some variation is to be expected from piece to piece, which I believe is what caused the cracking in my first pounder - NOT craftsmanship. Absolutely love my replacement and have nothing but good things to say about the customer service experience!!!I really wanted to like this kraut pounder as it was one of the only reasonably affordable options made out of solid wood rather than laminated or glued planks. Prior to using it, I briefly washed the pounder (no soaking in water!) and oiled it with food grade mineral oil as suggested by the tag in the box. During the first use, I absolutely loved the shape and heft of this pounder, it's a great fit for both my 2 liter and 1 gallon crocks! However, when I went to wash it again immediately after use, I noticed several small to medium cracks in the wide end which are great breeding grounds for bacteria - something I don't want in my ferments. I don't know how I could have taken any better care of this tool and am quite disappointed by how easily even the solid wood design started cracking.

Update 2 (4/1/2022): After using the replacement sent to me by the seller for a week while also sealing with refined coconut oil, no more cracking. Each time I use it, I wash, towel dry and then apply coconut oil by hand until the whole stomper is glossy- making sure to coat the ends. I then leave it on the counter to allow it to absorb the oil effectively sealing it. This has prevented cracking, although, it's more effort than I originally planned on going through. Be sure to seal, or it will crack.Update 1 (3/23/2022): Went from 1 star to 3 stars. The seller reached out soon after my review and offered to send me a new pounder, free of charge. I'm going to take the reccomendation from the Q&A on this item and seal my new pounder with coconut oil after each use. There is no instruction on doing this provided by the seller and no mention of needing to do it on the product packaging. I'll see how the sealing goes and see if cracking is prevented.Original review: I've had this for about 3 days and it's already splitting..It's sturdy, has great weight to it and is ergonomically shaped but all of that means little if it's splitting so soon. The cracks aren't ideal because they can harbor undesired bacteria and you don't want that in your ferments.

I've made several batches of sauerkraut, but the best I've ever made was the one using this tool. It not only made it much easier to break down the cabbage, but also getting it into the jar and making for sure there were no air pockets. I think it would also help in getting mincemeat properly packed into the jar. Highly recommend!

I oil treated it with olive oil and have used it 3 times for smashing beans.So far so good and no cracks yet.