naughty cookie cutters

[salixbabylon]

Have any of you artistic and/or foodie people ever made cookie cutters?

I found a set of Kama Sutra cookie cutters, but they're $55 for a set of 4 (from Sweden), and that seems outrageous to me. I mean, it's thin metal, right? Should be easy...

http://www.pipparkakan.se/BUY.html

Anyone ever done it or have suggestions?

Comments

[lisagems.livejournal.com]

'hokay. first. It's going to be both very easy, and a lot harder than it looks. The trick is going to be getting smooth curves. Get some copper sheet, 20g at the thickest, you could probably go with 22g. It you can get it about 1" wide, that would be optimal. Get some dowels the approx, size of those heads and get some flat nose pliers.

What are flat nose pliers? They are jewelry pliers with a broad flat tip, and NO, no really NO ridges on the inside to of the tines. Those are for making the sharper corners.

Get dowels the correct size for any rounder curves.

Then, practice. Practice using the tools until you are comfortable making clean bends.

It would help to have a little butane torch, to anneal (soften) the work hardened copper. Turn the lights low, so you can see the glow clearly, and heat the copper until it is a dull red. Do this on fire brick or some other fire safe, heat retaining surface. Then douse the copper in pickle (a mild acidic solution) to remove any firescale (that icky black stuf) Quick run with a polish cloth, and they should be good for further mangling.

The tricky bit is closing the loop on the cookie cutter. The optimal method is soldering it, but that takes still more practice. Or you could bend the two ends outward and rivit, leaving yourself a handle of sorts.

When you have the shape you want, polish polish polish.

You need to be careful to avoid scratches, particularly to the surface that will be the inside of the cutter. Scratches would hold dough and prevent a clean release.

so. Still wanna do this?

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! I am WAY too lazy for all of that. I was just thinking for self-use, something a step above trying to use a knife to cut around the edges of a paper template.

I see from the link in the comment below yours that I could make some amature ones from aluminum and scissors - I might give that a try before I go professional. ;)

But what I *really* want to know is - you've done this before? What did you make? Why? How? Where? I want the scoop on how such arcane and detailed knowledge was acquired!

[lisagems.livejournal.com]

Haven't made cookie cutters, specifically, but I have taken a good look at some of the higher end copper ones with an eye toward making my own designs, and I've made boxes which are made on the same principle. Part of the metalsmithing classes in college that lead to my making jewelry. The reason I haven't done it, is that I'd never be able to charge enough to make up for the work.

The detail... well, just basic metalsmithing, really. A bend is a bend, when you know how to make it, you can apply it in different ways.

I have to admit, I like the tape idea from the wiki article, much easier. But, I would have thought a lasagna pan was too heavy a gauge metal. eh. aluminum does bend more easily than than the steel (even the cheap stuff that most cutters are made from).

The companies that make the cutters have dies to complete the bends for them, so they can make them quickly and easily, so they don't have to charge as much as I would have to for hand-crafted cutters. shame really, it could be fun.

[lisagems.livejournal.com]

Oh, and knowlege about scratches... I have a large collection of cutters, from my gramma, my mom, and some I found. I rarely use them anymore, but I had to discard a couple when they aquired scratches I couldn't get polished out, and they mangled every cookie I tried to pull. -_-.

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

OOh cool = you know such interesting art and crafts things. :) I do see that it would expensive. I'll try the cheap way first, and if I like them and want to re-use them or need something sturdier, I'll come back to your instructions and give them a go.

Good point about the scratches or non-smooth edges. I've noticed that's a problem on my older "disposable" alumnimum mini loaf pans. I'll try to get them as clean as posible. :)

[nebulein.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried it, but there's a wikihow article that doesn't sound too difficult. (How funny that this popped up just a few days ago on my gmail *g*) If you give it a try, good luck and let us know how it works out! :D

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

That looks way more manageable. Thank you so much for the link! :)

[nebulein.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I really just stumbled over it a few days ago because it was featured as "wikihow-to article of the day". :)