A new Baguette peel

[DrakeRemoray]

Hi All,
I thought I would show off the new baguette peel I made. I made it out of a single piece of pine from Home Depot.

It is a little too flexible but it is much better than loading the loaves either crooked on a square peel (as Uno mentioned in another thread) or from a cookie sheet...

Drake

[james]

Drew,

You've made your own light saber! Excellent.
James

[jengineer]

Fis to the flex

Fix 1:
Get a piece of hard maple/oak/mahogany. Split the pine grove it on both sides, tongue the hard wood glue it together.

Fix 2:
take a look at a guitar - give it a steel spine

[sarah h]

Looks good, I like it ... I may just have to try one myself!

Sarah

[Unofornaio]

Very nice..thatsa beautiful..
Hey if the handel gives out you still have a really nice head you can just join to a solid wood broom handel. I had a one I made for the bakery oven,12' reach, with a piece of electrical conduit for the handel. It worked for years still have it and I didn't pay a couple of hundred for it..
Now you need to brand your logo in the head and put em on E-bay.. with a special rate for FB forum members of course.

[DrakeRemoray]

Thanks guys!
I did think about running a steel rod of some sort into the handle. For now, I think I will leave it alone.

Do you think if I just use a harder, more expensive wood for the next peel, that it would be less flexible?

Drake

[CanuckJim]

Drake,

As I see it, the flexibility comes from the fact that you've made it from one piece of pine (?). Next time, you might consider making the handle out of harder wood, cutting a notch in the blade, gluing in the handle and sanding smooth. For the peel you have, you might stiffen it by using a router with a dovetail bit to cut a female opening from the end of the blade to several inches into the handle, then make a matching male piece out of hardwood. Glue it in, sand smooth. That would take out a lot of the flex, which I'm assuming is where the blade stops and the shaft begins. It might be even simpler to cut a slot all the way through with a table saw, but a dovetail gives you more glue surface. The weak spot on the two large peels I made is at the juncture of the blake and shaft. Had to repair one, twice.

Jim

[DrakeRemoray]

Jim,
Yes it is pine. It was a cheap way to experiment.

If I did the dovetail in the handle, are you saying go all the way through the handle or just a notch?

Like this?

( \ / )

Drake

[rlf5]

I'm going to have to make a couple of these this weekend. The cookie sheet way is getting tiresome, and my only peel long enough for a short baguette (about 12") will only accommodate one.

[CanuckJim]

Drake,

Just a notch, as you say. I'd make it from near the tip of the blade to about four inches up into the handle, and about half the thickness of the pine. Maple or oak would work for the male dovetail spline.

Jim