A Taste of the Flavor to Come

While I've been relatively absent here (again), it doesn't mean that I haven't been busy. I've been helping a friend bring back to life a really cool mid-century surf board table, and that has occupied most of my home shop time. I've been baking a lot. I bake more than most people, but lately the oven has been cranking.

Baking and working in my home shop has meant that I've taken a break from bikes for just a little while. I lost my muse there for a bit. The muse is coming back, and the ideas are flowing again. Hopefully that translates into making some really cool stuff for my new Triumph.

For some time now, I've been throwing around the idea in my head of making baking/kitchen tools here at home. The only way to do it practically and not waste precious resources is to make more than I need and find a venue to sell them. My investment into making say, a single tart ring is roughly the same as if I wanted to make a dozen. To that end, I am starting to plan out a few products and test them out. First off will be a couple of simple tools. The simplest of all? The bench scraper or pastry scraper. I've heard chefs use the terms interchangeably. I have two test pieces in the works, and I'm using them as my start point.

A pair of pastry scrapers. A very useful tool in the kitchen. I have never been satisfied with the one that I have, which is why I want to make a new one. These will have wooden handles, and one will be a test for a curved edge. I already know I'll want to drop a gauge thickness.

On the bike side of things, I'm figuring out how to make some pull back fender struts. I'm not worried about carrying a load on the fender. I'm not into carrying a passenger, if you want to ride...get your own! The final piece will be stainless steel, it's just cheaper to test with mild steel first.

I need to get off my arse and stay off it! We'll see how this goes. Usually I only get lazy when I don't have a plan or materials. I have a plan now, and most of the resources required to carry it out. Off to the races.