Pastry Cutter Improvement

I've been making a lot of biscuits lately, partly inspired, I guess, by Bad Bart or whatever The Dude II was called in Crazy Heart.

"Oh yeah, biscuits. Need to do those more often."

By the way, why the cream of tartar? I'm guessing he was using some antiquated recipe before pre-blended baking powder was available? At any rate, I don't use cream of tartar, though I have found a source in Sweden: Curry House, in Haga has it in stock. I forget if they call it vinsten or cream of tartar, but at any rate you can't get it at the pharmacy anymore.

To incorporate the butter and flour in biscuits, or for pie crust, I've been using my stand mixer for the last number of years, because it's there and it works, and because I hated my pastry cutter. Maybe I've been using it wrong, but I didn't like the way the handle rotated in my hand, and the protruding nut on one side always dug into my skin. So the pastry cutter languished in a drawer, and every time I set about making a little batch of biscuits I'd fire up the Hobart, which seems like overkill.

I tried replacing the bolt with some stainless screws I had laying around from an earlier project, but the hole for the through-bolt was so big the screws didn't bite very well. So I decided to make a new handle.

I had some ash laying around, so I got out an appropriate knife, cleaned up its edge, and got whittling.

A little 240 sandpaper later and the handle was ready. I cut it off and rubbed some canola into the grain, followed by some beeswax, and then used the stainless screws to fasten the handle into the pastry cutter again.

The whole process was done before my potatoes finished boiling. And it didn't cost me a cent. And it will make using the pastry cutter a whole lot more pleasant. So why did I put it off for so long? These sorts of little projects can make life easier and more enjoyable, and aren't exactly a nuisance. And are in every way sustainable: I have repurposed a tool I found lacking rather than replacing or discarding it. This project will moreover enable me to use a simple hand tool over a complex and energy-demanding power tool when appropriate.

Fixing a broken or lacking tool is the sort of thing that should be second nature to us, but seems more and more to be a thing of the past. That I should be blogging about this mundane repair is on the surface ridiculous, but I believe we need to think more in terms of making do with what we have.

Oct. 5 update: I furthered refined the handle by rounding the hard edges visible in the above photo.