Or spring for one of the first item pictured on this page. It comes with several knife blade tips which should make short work of your job.
(Click on the small picture to enlarge and see what the blades look like.)
Jeff
Traditionally, I buy a ten lb bar of chocolate for Easter. Half goes to the kids. The other half goes in my desk drawer at work (plus half of what I gave the kids because they're not nearly as passionate as I am for chocolate, but that's another story).
Cutting this bar is never fun. I've thought about making a chocolate cutter out of a piano wire or maybe a guitar string - sort of like the big cheese cutters they use at the cheese store that I frequent. If I could heat the wire, it would make the job much easier. Is there a safe way to electrically heat such a wire sufficiently to cut chocolate? What sort of low-voltage circuit could I use for this? Or is this idea completely off the wall?
Clever idea, but piano wire or a guitar string won't have enough resistance to heat up when you apply a current. You want something like nichrome wire which is used in styrofoam cutters. Check eBay. There are some which will run on 2 "D" batteries.
Don't make this into a project, unless you are bored. Simply heat a knife over your stove and then slice the bar.
Maybe give them something else instead. Or a one pound bar?
My mother was too thin as a child/teenagere, so my grandmother would give her a nickel to go buy a milkshake, another nickel to have them put an egg in it, and another nickel to get my mother to drink it.
Later, she had learned to love milkshakes and sweets, and it made it much more difficult for her to keep weight off.
They used to have, and maybe still do, the same wire cheese cutter in consumer size. I have two of them, and I would give you one, maybe, but they are from my mother and grandmother.
I was going to suggest 110 volts through a lightbulb and the wire, but after reading Grandpa, I realized that wouldn't work either. It wouldn't blow a fuse, but because there is so little resistance in the wire you mention, it wouldn't make any heat either.
I think the wire idea is not too good as a thick slab of chocolate does not lend itself to being severed by a blunt wire. The hot wire would be messy and stinky as well as potentially a shock hazard.
I would suggest buying a saw to use for chocolate. You can get a thin bladed saw, and just wash it after severing the chocolate. You will get some chocolate dust, but that can just be tossed in a coup of coffee.
I say chill it, break it and give the small pieces to the kids.
-- Oren
"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."
USe either nichrome wire, which is designed for such heating, or a wire-saw.
Tried that. The chocolate is about 2" thick. The knife appears to give up virtually all of its heat after about 1/8".
Too thick. It breaks into big chunks. Too big to eat.
The chocolate is actually for ME. The kids are just an excuse to buy the big bar. ;-)
Too late. I'm already addicted.
I've made those from guitar strings. Cheese can simply be cut. Chocolate needs the heat to do it well. Thanks for thinking about giving one to me, but I couldn't take it.
I don't think 110V is a good idea.
Chainsaw? :)
That's why I'm looking for a 'safe' way to do it. How do the pros deal with this problem? I assume there are some who cut chocolate bars.
This is really, really good chocolate. The kind that turns into something that resembles stale chewing gum when the temp gets much above 98.6. So the coffee idea wouldn't work.
Would the chocolate re-fuse itself as it cools fast? (Like cutting plexiglass with a sabersaw)
I suspected that about you, subconsciously or consciously.
To be fair, I didn't think about it much, and I only meant that if they weren't from my m and gm, then I would maybe give you one. But they are, so there's no maybe.
You're welcome anyhow.
You may have a problem with the phenomenon of regelation. It's like a block of ice. You can sit it on a wire, and the block of ice will eventually go around the wire, but it refreezes once the wire passes. Chocolate may do the same thing if it is a thick piece.
Let us know how this idea works.
Or not.
Steve
Ask EMERIL? He's on the in-ner-net.
-- Oren
"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."
Get a Weller gun-type soldering iron and remove the tip. Insert bare 16 or
18 gauge solid wire in a loop as big as you need, but not too big (probably 6" long with 1" between the wires would be good). Re-secure the ends. (This would make sense if you were looking at one). Pull the trigger, wait a bit for it to heat up & burn stuff off the wire, and cut. Pull the gun slowly, let the heat melt the chocolate before you move the gun.Works great for styrofoam and other similar things.
Electric carving knife. We use one to cut foam rubber and styrefoam.
Best answer yet. Whenever I used to see that type of chunk chocolate in the stores, it was in broken chunks- obviously just wrapped in cheesecloth, and slammed on the chopping table real hard, and then unwrapped and repackaged. I bet it would break pretty cleanly over a fulcrum like a table edge. aem sends...
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