Cookie Cutters

[wilsonrabbit]

Hello!

This is an amazing site! Very glad to have found it and to be here.

I was wondering whether anyone knew about making your own cookie cutters. I have a number of special shapes in mind (and will probably think of more) and have an inkling of already what to do. Does anyone have experience doing this and know how to go about getting the metal strips? I am assuming it must be food grade metal of copper or aluminum and of a certain thickness. Any other tips and pointers would be helpful and most welcomed.

Thanks!

[OPJK]

Bridge Kitchenware in New York used to custom make any shape you want for something like $7. You might want to contact them to either make some for you or to buy the supplies to make them yourself. They'd probably give you advice on how to do it as well.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I've been making my own cookie cutters for years -- it is not nearly as difficult as you would think. This company, Off The Beaten Path, sells a kit and explains how you can do it.

Foose Cookie Cutters also sells the copper strips used to make one's own.

The trick is having really good, clean pliers. Once you have your outline shape, practice on some cheap wire to make the shapes with the pliers before you make it in the copper stripping. Don't try and bend it with your hands -- you won't get a tight-enough bend to it. Mark the spots where you want it to bend and use the pliers.

[Wendy DeBord]

I make my own cookie cutters and forms all the time. I bought some copper flashing at a hardware store.......getting the right gauge is hard to find cause you want something thin-yet not too thin that it flexes when you use it. I cut my own stips from the sheet to the length I want, then bend it.

My only draw back is I use duct tape to hold my two ends together and that doesn't cut as clean as I want. I need to soder them together but I usually don't have enough time to do so.

If you cut your own, draw out the width/length with an oil pencil so your sure to cut it straight and even. If your not straight then you'll stuggle more after it's bent getting a level cutting edge.

P.S. Welcome!!!

[wilsonrabbit]

Thanks everyone for those very useful and wonderful tips! I'll give them a try and see what works for me.

[andiesenji]

I haven't made cookie cutters, but I have made forms (bezels) for large gems (semi precious and things like agates, amber, fossil ivory, etc.) that are odd shaped with acute angles, curves, loops, and so on. Some made from copper, others from silver and a few from gold.

I used a home made "peg" board for shaping with holes drilled that would take a 1/4 inch steel rod that I had cut into short sections. This bending gig makes it very easy to shape strips of metal and keep the face level. It saves a lot of time and you get clean bends with no jaw marks on the metal.

If you can afford it, you should try and find a used, hand-cranked machine for "hemming" one edge of the metal strips. That is folding one edge down which makes for a stronger piece of metal and no sharp edged on that side.

I used to borrow the use of one in a metal shop at the place where I used to live. I made a couple of pieces for the owner's wife so he never charged me for the use of it.