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Ice Cream Scoops / Pizza Cutters

For Christmas, Sally and I decided to give our families homemade ice cream scoops and pizza cutters.  I bought the kits from Rockler.  The ice cream set comes with a stainless scoop and collar, both of which are supposed to be epoxied onto the turned handle.  For four of these, I found out after the fact that the wood shrinks enough to pop the seal between wood and collar.  Best practice is to let the turned handle sit for a few days and then seal the collar and scoop in there with a ton of epoxy.
The pizza cutters presented a different challenge.  They’re designed with a threaded insert that you torque into a hole you’ve drilled in the handle.  This way, you can unscrew the metal portion of the cutter and throw it in the dishwasher.  Handy.  The problem is that the insert they ship is not really made to withstand the pressure of mounting into hardwood.  I broke a couple of inserts and then bought some brass replacements that finally stood up to the pressure.  But even then, a couple of them split the rosewood handles upon insertion.  After several failed attempts, I ended up with these rosewood-handled pizza cutters/personal defense devices.

February 10, 2012 - 8:20 am

Sarah Wolfe - These are very cool. Good job, Matt!