Excelsior was used in huge quantities 70 or more years ago. Today, it has been replaced by lower cost peanuts, bubble pack and a host of specialized packings.
Excelsior is a truly effective natural packing material. It's definitely worth a thought when cost isn't too important and you would like to impart an high quality, earthy, natural feel to the packing job. Pack gifts of wine or terracotta or fruit in it. We have to warn you, our excelsior a bit messy -- it tends to shed small pieces of wood. It's also quite flammable.
We've been told excelsior can be used to pack heavier machine parts. We don't have any experience with excelsior in this application.
We can special order a 50 pound bale of it at a very good price. The stuff we can obtain is a real packing material -- not the pretty, decorative kind. It is way too coarse to use in gift baskets or fruit -- but it would work well for packing terra cotta or gardening tools. |