Bill made me a Bakers Lame today! - Photo (for slashing dough)

[Lucinda]

I still need to oil this one before I test it tonight, but I like it so far.
I think he did a nice design. It's a little over 7 inches long and this one is from red oak.

We have a couple of other ideas I want to try, and I definitely want one with stainless screws so you can change blades. I cant imagine really needing to change blades, but I'm a clean freak so I still want one I can dis-assemble. I'm also not sure how much of the razor blade should be exposed. This one is rigid, which is probably good, but I want to test one thats more flexible too.

I may put some on ebay if we get a really good design. :)

Anyone have any suggestions?

[sazemisery]

1. Is it used to slash your bread? n/t

[Lucinda]

2. Yep. Sorry! I should have been clear about that.

:)

[hippywife]

3. So...

yours does woodworking, too, huh? :rofl:

[Lucinda]

4. Yerp. He's a carpenter.

Got me a purty fella that can build me a house AND cook. These "Bill" fellas have many talents...

Mine, however, is incapable of mastering TOILET SEAT DOWN: 101
But I let it slide.

[hippywife]

5. That's right.

I had a brain fart and forgot. LOL

I have no toilet seat issues here. :7

[Lucinda]

6. You are one seriously lucky woman.

:rofl:

[hippywife]

7. It's all luck, too.

He just came that way. No training or nagging involved. That musta been someone else's headache. :rofl:

[Lucinda]

8. Bill goes in cycles. He's great for months then he gets a brain fart.

Btw - I am loving that stored biga starter bread that I've been developing.

After the biga is made and in storage you can make a big beautiful boule in under two hours. With really great flavor. Bill still prefers the Ain5, but I'm loving this stuff.

About to take a loaf out now. It has been seriously over-scored with my new lame. But I had to try it out! :rofl: It looked like it had been a prop in a slasher movie when I was done with it!

[hippywife]

11. That last bit made me LOL!

You are hysterical sometimes! Okay, well alot of the time. :rofl:

[housewolf]

9. Oh that's really cool!

I just use single razor blades but having a handle is a really nice safety feature. I went through several of the plastic lames with the curved blades but they'd lose their sharpness so quickly that razor blades seem to work the best for me.

[Lucinda]

10. I wanted something with a handle since I always have a cat underfoot

:) Too risky with just the razor blade for me. And the plastic lames just don't do it for me. This worked like a charm.


Bill is talking about making a half round version with the blade attaching into the straight side. That sounds really stable too. The curve would fit into the palm of your hand...

The razor blade makes a huge difference in my cuts, so much easier and better results too.
I still want one that unscrews so I can change blades if necessary. I think a stainless screw and wingnut system will be perfect.

[hippywife]

12. Hey! Bill came up with an idea.

I think it might be a pretty good one, too. How about one of these for slashing? You can just break off the blade when it dulls and there's another one right there real handy? And it's cheap! :D

[Lucinda]

14. I tried one. They get rusty. They have to be absolutely dry afterwards...

but it did work well and is very cheap. We're going to make the one with the stainless screws in a couple of days.

[kestrel91316]

13. Oh, heck, if I need something like that I can just grab a Weck blade from the

drawer in the Treatment Room.

I had a whole box of them leftover from vet school for years. I'm sure they're in there somewhere. We used them to shave horses' skin prior to surgery, because the electric clippers didn't get close enough to make the surgeons happy. Shaving a lumpy, irregular horse's knee with a straight razor, freehand, is a skill rarely called for in dog/cat practice, alas.

[Inchworm]

15. Silly question...

After I saw this thread I decided I'd break out my utility knife and make pretty marks on the bread I make.

Tried a few things and all I seem to be doing is letting the air out of the second rise.

I realized tonight to ask...

When do you "lame" the dough?

:blush:

[housewolf]

16. You need a really sharp kinfe or razor blade...

If you use a knife, a serrated one works much better than a non-serrated blade.

Hold the blade at about a 30 degree angle just above the dough and you want to cut about 3/8" - 1/2" (depending on the size of your loaf). Not straight down but at a slight angle. Cut firmly and decisively, in one single movement. It's easier to cut from the center outward than from the outside towards the center.

When working with artisan breads, it's a little better to bake them just _slightly_ under-proofed rather than fully-proofed or over-proofed. "Slightly under-proofed" means that when you lightly tap the dough with your finger tip, it just begins to hold a slight indentation. If the dough immediately springs back into its shape when you lightly tap it, it's still under-proofed. If it indents deeply and holds the full indent, it's over-proofed. "Slightly underproofed" dough won't deflate when you slash it (althought it likely will spread), it will cut cleanly and maintain its structure, if your blade is sharp enough.

Slashing allows you to control the exploding rise of the dough, so that you get the expansion where you want it, along with being decorative. There is another reason for baking artisan bread while it's still slightly under-proofed - you get a better rise than if you bake it fully-proofed or over-proofed. It's called "oven spring." The dough gets a strong, immediate blast of intense heat when you put it in a hot oven onto a stone that's been pre-heated for 45 - 60 minutes. This causes a flurry of yeast activity while the warm temps enter all the way into the center of the loaf while the bread's structure is still strong. With a fully-proofed loaf, the yeast is nearer to exhaustion and can't give as much rise as a slightly-underproofed loaf can. An over-proofed loaf is in danger of deflating either when you slash it or when you put it in the oven, and the yeast is even nearer to exhaustion and less able to provide a good oven-spring.

Hope that helps some....

[Vinca]

17. Wow - that sure beats my box of single-edge razor blades from the dollar store!

Very nice . . . and I didn't know they had a name.