Kitchen knives and cookie cutters.

[jerryk25]

I thought I'd post . .
I'm not dead yet. .

but I have a short memory lane trip
for "ALMOST A KNIFE"

everybody has rolled a cookie cutter shape.
Once Upon a Time . . .

I drew piles of shapes to press cookie cutters
from a welding roll hardened sheet stainless ring.

I used CAD to resize shapes until the perimeter length
matched the 3 inch steel ring.

The trick was to get everything broken into 3 wedges.
the small wedge could have an overhead arm for pins.
The Small wedge, lower left corner, did not move.
The pins act like folding surfaces to anchor the "stretch"
of the ring as it is "ironed" into final shape.
The top wedge started moving inward 2nd. . .
the steel ring folding the detailed arms and legs
allowing the steel to gather and stretch.
them finally the lower right wedge moves in.
and is sloppy, so as not to overstress the already bent ring.
the tail is designed to "grow long" or short,
and the operator has to put the ring weld seam
in a particular spot to avoid weird fold stress flaws.

and the part has to fall out when the press relaxes. . .
I have actual CNC cad files for X-Y-Z waterjet cutting blocks.
All-Clad paid for the steel, and the labor to mill the blocks,

We made a few wood blocks, good until they split.
The we switched to soft steel. . .
Only the food product cutter was food grade stainless.

We had problems buffing out the ring welds . . .
but we figured it out, we sold oodles under a different brand.

You may be holding one of my city skyline cookies,
where one layer vanilla cookie dough. is on top a background color.
so two cutters make one cookie.

Or the USA . or T-Rex. of Triceratops. Cats, Dogs,
stars, thumbprint flowers . . .

Does this count as a knife. . .it cuts stuff. . ?

[Bill DeShivs]

It's a type of knife- one that most knifekmakers couldn't fathom.