The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Hobart N50 pastry knife ... who wants one?

Skwike's picture
Skwike

Hobart N50 pastry knife ... who wants one?

I've been looking at my pastry knife and I think it's time I made some. The original ones appear to be tin coated steel. I'm looking at making some from stainless, hopefully they'll be strong enough. I have no idea how much they'll cost, that depends on how many I make. Any takers? I won't bother if there's no call for them

I'm also looking at fitting Kenwood attachments to the #10 hub, they look better made than the new Kitchenaid offerings and are dirt cheap second hand. There's oddly some interest in fitting KA toys to Kenwoods too. This one's for me, but if anyone feels they can't live without Kenwood toys, let me know.

Thirdly I'm in the middle of converting the Kenwood sieve to fit the Hobart Kitchenaid bowl. The sieve plates have two sides and do so much more than that little cone shaped KA attachment, well they look more fun at least. They're like the old kitchenaid bowl sieve, but with a metal blade not the wooden block, though the older ones were wooden. Metal because one side has a very rough surface for fibers and seeds.

So if anyone is interested, let me know, if nothing else it might be entertaining. I don't even know if this is the correct forum. I might even start a hacking blog yet. I'm mainly doing it for my own gratification, but if there's an interest, so much the better. I wonder what else there is to mess with?

breadman1015's picture
breadman1015

If the price is right, I'd be interested

Skwike's picture
Skwike

I'm currently looking at stainless 316L rather than the tinned steel of the originals. I'll keep you informed of my progress. The sieve job is my top priority at the moment, so it'll be a few weeks before I make the proto type and try to destroy it on the mixer. 

Cookie monster's picture
Cookie monster

I'd be interested in a pastry knife. Any chance of making one for a HL6?

Skwike's picture
Skwike

The issues with the HL6 are as follows:

Preferably, I would need a beater to take accurate dimensions from. If an N50 flat paddle fits on the drive spigot, that's the important bit done, the rest can be measured easily and a bit of guess work applied. By design, the N50 blades are not that close a fit to the bowl, so an 1/8 of an inch either way isn't a problem.

The second issue, there's not many about, so the development costs couldn't be absorbed over a production run of say 100, making it almost invisible. If the N50 blades fit, that's going to make it more cost effective because I can just change the shape of the blade to suit the bowl. That's how the KA stuff works, an N50 will fit on a the bigger KA, it might not fit in the bowl, but the complicated bit is the same. So it's a natural progression to go from N50 to the rest of the KA family.

Your blade will probably be a one off and that's going to make it expensive, but as I said, if the hub of the blade is the same, not so much. You'll be doing most of the development work yourself, give me dimensions for the blade and I'll weld it to an N50 hub. You could even mail me a cardboard template of the flat beater and I could take it from there, again, that's if the hub is the same. If it's not I can talk you through measuring the spigot of the mixer. Get it wrong though and it's an expensive paperweight. Depends on your aptitude for such things, there's ways to get around it though. Just depends how much you're prepared to get involved.

Maybe try a blade with a twist in, like the HL6 fancy flat beater, that's one I'm looking at for the N50.

Cookie monster's picture
Cookie monster

Sounds great. The unit came with a twisted beater. It fits my wifes standard KA attachments on the head so I guess it fits N50 also. I can probably get decent dimensions off of comparisons to known object in photos of the OEM HL6 pastry knife. Also measuring isn't an issue I have a nice set of calipers. Do you have KA heads to weld to? I have a friend that builds KAs in Greenville that might be able to get some materials.

Skwike's picture
Skwike

The "heads" aren't a problem. Best to measure from the drive pin hole (bottom edge of the horizontal) to the tip of the blade. The shape of the bowl can be made by cutting bits of cardboard and fitting them together like a quilt to give an accurate shape. Drawing around a twisted beater might not be that easy. That said, within an 1/8" isn't going to cause issue I don't think, because the blades don't run close to the bowl around the sides, it's the length I'd be more concerned about.

Is it the artisan KA you have? I assume it rotates in the same direction as the KA mixer. Obviously the next progression is a twisted dough hook, bowl dimensions will need to be more precise for that adventure though. The Hobart N50 has a beater arc radius of 30mm, the Kenwood is 28mm, so its not much of a stretch to see how it all got started, though Kenwood bowls are considerably larger though. Your bowls are probably about the same size as a Kenwood chef, cant say for sure since I've never been up close to an HL6.

Cookie monster's picture
Cookie monster

It already came with cast stainless dough hook that is a piece of functional art, just like the stainless twisted beater. Truly a shame they only made one production run and the pastry knife only came with some of them. It will take me a week or two to get done but I'll get all the measurements of the machine, bowl, accessories and clearances as well as cutouts.

Skwike's picture
Skwike

I've a lot on my self, these projects are fill in jobs, so I won't be "dropping everything" to make a knife.

The dough hooks are something I want to look at, I can see they'll be a fun thing to make. Probably use some kind of former to get repeatable results. I wasn't suggesting making a one off for the HL6, that would be madness. Doing a pastry blade is bad enough. I saw someone making 16 wire whips for Kenwoods a few years ago. Made each one by hand as an individual item, absolutely nuts. Some we're better than others.

ruralont's picture
ruralont

I'd be interested in one too. The prices for these on eBay are a bit obscene.

I was thinking a while that it was too bad that no one had come up with a simple 3D printed adapter to make the Kitchenaid whisks/paddles/dough hooks long enough to work on the N50s...

Skwike's picture
Skwike

Having looked at KA attachments, putting them on an N50 wouldn't be wise. As for the 3d adaptor, machined from bar stock would be better, preferably stainless. The whirlpool accessories are so poorly made, it wouldn't be worth it, well not for me at least.

datona93's picture
datona93

Do you have any of these or did you make any? I would be interested in buying one..

FrankIII's picture
FrankIII

Were any of these ever made? I'd be interested in one as well.

jrizzo's picture
jrizzo

Skwike, I hope you got enough interest to make the pastry knife, as I would be interested.  (I just joined this forum.)