Submitted by staff of life on July 9, 2007 - 7:41pm
After searching high and low and not being able to find my precious curved lame ANYWHERE, and with many batards needing scoring, I threaded a double-edged razor through a Q-Tip and it worked great! The curve seemed identical to the one my lame provided, and the cuts bloomed beautifully. The only drawback is that a Q-Tip has a much shorter handle than my lame, but in a pinch (or for the penny-pincher), this solution works great.
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King Arthur has a nice one,
King Arthur has a nice one, although I think it was overpriced! :-)
The KAF lame is lame ..
Jamila, I bought the KAF lame some time back - I think it was made by Matfer. That lame was almost child-proof, not sharp at all. Now, it could be that this is the way that lame is supposed to be - but for me a sharp lame works way better. The only thing that keeps me from throwing it in the trash is the fact that I paid almost $7 for it (Not that I get my money's worth by the lame sitting with my baking tools)
I use double edge razor blades - either straight or on a 1/8" square stainless rod which produces a perfectly solid mounted curved blade (self-locking).
BROTKUNST
KAF Lame needs sharpening
I bought the same child proof lame BROTKUNST and agree it is a dud. I kept it after I found a way to sharpen it with a small diamond stone but mostly I use a single edge razor blade. I discovered a while ago that without much trouble you can sharpen even Exacto blades better than the factory ships them. The 2 sided blades are so thin they probably as sharp as you can expect.
Eric
King Arthur Lame
I bought this one, too, and was disappointed to find that the blade doesn't look like it can be replaced!
For the truly cheap...
I usually use a double edged razor blade with a wooden coffee stirrer as a handle (a cheaper, easier to find version of that Brotkunst mentioned above). It makes a decent handle and is cheap and easy to replace. The stick bends the blade into a nice curve. Recently I have been just using a serrated tomato knife that came with a knife set I have. It is nice and sharp, because I use it for almost nothing else, and it is serrated which helps with very wet doughs. If I am worried about sticking, I spray it with oil before I use it. Works great unless you need a curved blade...
Chopstick?
This makes me wonder if a chopstick could be rigged to be a lovely substitute...
But hey... I'm super cheap. I use a bix box of single edge razor blades and don't use a handle of any kind. Not usually a worry for home baking.
-Loafer
DH recently made me a couple
DH recently made me a couple of lames with chopstick handles. I haven't tried them yet.
Of lames and paint stores.....
People probably already know this but I just discovered that my local paint supply store sells a clipp on gadget in the configuration of a flat pocket fountain pen for under $2.00. It has on it a supply of small straight edge razor blades that can be used and then broken off and disposed of as desired.