Kurt Schaefer
I enjoy making things which help to make other things. There's something kind of empowering about it. From lathe attachments to custom waffle irons these projects keep popping up. Give someone a custom waffle and they enjoy it for one meal, but give someone a custom waffle iron, and they can enjoy the waffles when ever they like. The big drawback to the waffle iron project was that it was a LOT of work to make. So I tried to think of things that were a lot simpler to make, but had that same flavor. The kind of gift were someone can go through a little ritual, and end up with something unique that reminds them of you.
The idea strikes
So one day I was poking around in a cooking utensil store when I happened to spy some cookie cutters. Perfect! How simple is that? On closer inspection I realized that most cookie cutters are made from a strip of sheet metal. Commercial cutters all seem to be made of either copper, stainless, or galvanized steel. The strip is bent into the desired shape, and either spot welded or soldered shut. The edge of the strip away from the cutting edge is folded over which adds tiffness, and also keeping that side from being sharp when you press on it.All you need is some sheet metal, tin snips, and some lead free solder. Heck I had all that stuff at home. Now all that was needed were a few designs for some custom cookies.
To work on designs I took some aluminum foil and made a strip that was as long as the pieces of scrap copper I had around. I folded the top edge over, and started in shaping the piece. This is a good way to prototype because it can tell you exactly where along the strip the bends have to be, how long a strip you'll need for various designs, and you can start over again and again until you get the shape you like. Very handy. Here are a few things I tried to keep in mind when making the design: Keep a strait-ish place on the design for the metal overlap to go. Don't do too many tight turns and twists That will make it too hard to bend the sheet, and don't leave sections of the resulting cookie so thin that they'll either burn or crumble.
Moomins enter the picture
My first design was to make a cookie cutter shaped like a Moomin. The Finnish author Tove Janson wrote some great children's books about a family of Moomins that live in Moomin Valley. They are wonderful books, and I thought that Moomin shaped cookies could be iced up to look like any of the main Moomin family members. I'm not sure if anyone actually sells Moomin shaped cookie cutters commercially, but I rather hope not.Once I had the first design worked up in aluminum foil it was time to cut some strips of copper and see how hard they were to shape. I cut some strips, and marked a line about 3/16 from the rough edge. I figured it was fine to have the uneven cut side folded over inside where it wouldn't affect the final cutter, and use the nicely cut strait side to form the actual face of the cutter.
I folded the 3/16 strip over by clamping the piece in the vice between a piece of angle iron, and a board with just the 3/16 edge sticking up. I hammered that over using a piece of wood and a hammer. Then I unclamped it and just hammered the strip the rest of the way over to form the reinforcing bead of the cookie cutter.
Then it was time to start shaping. If you have tight double backs it's best to locate and fold those in first while you can still get at them to hammer them flat. After that I just used a system of gentle bends done by hand, and tighter bends done between two metal rods that I had clamped into the vice vertically. That mostly did the trick. Once I had the shape closed I soldered it shut with lead free solder. A little bit of soap and water, and project complete! Amazing.
Show me the cookies
I also made a cookie cutter in the shape of a key, so that mom and Stan could make "CookKeys" Stan used to be a lock smith, so it seemd apropos. I gave them the untested cutters for Christmas. I was a bit worried that the little Moomin feet would burn, but it doesn't seem to have been a problem, and I'm sure they'll be fun to nibble on.I think the cutest bit about this project is the set of images mom took of her first batch of cookies made with the cutters. Legions of Moomins piled high on the counter. What a hoot!
