Comments on: Help me dip all my spoons, the non-toxic way.

Question: Help me dip all my spoons, the non-toxic way.

OlivesAndTurkishCoffee — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:34:12 -0800

Trying to find a permanent, food-safe way to mark all my cutlery and cooking utensils (that won't wear off after repeated washes).

Trying to prevent losing more measuring cups and spoons in my cooking class.

My idea is to find a food safe paint and just dip the ends of everything in the paint, making it easy to tell that they are mine.

Other people will be using the cookware, so it needs to be food -safe by the strictest possible standards. don't want to poison anyone...!

I have found few ostensibly food safe spray-paints elsewhere on the Internet, but hoping someone here may know of a reliable one or perhaps knows a trick from culinary school.

I don't care about the colour, and it doesn't have to be paint necessarily. Just a permanent, food-safe way of marking cutlery... Could just be a gel dot or something small...

By: small_ruminant

small_ruminant — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:36:00 -0800

My brother put electrical tape in 2 colors on the handles of his knives when he was in chef school. It works really well, but eventually you have to replace the tape.

He used two colors because other students were using colored electrical tape, too, so he had to make it obviously different from theirs.

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:40:30 -0800

Etching? Out your initials on them with one and you should be good.

By: i_am_a_fiesta

i_am_a_fiesta — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:44:42 -0800

How about Sharpie?

By: dawkins_7

dawkins_7 — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:56:36 -0800

Sharpie washes off really quickly on something like that. Electrical tape is great and will go through the dishwasher for quite a while before it comes off. Just make sure all the edges are not loose.

By: ryanrs

ryanrs — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:57:04 -0800

Sharpie Industrial

By: redsparkler

redsparkler — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:58:24 -0800

I'm thinking Plasti-Dip, 'cause it's awesome.

Plasti Dip® does not contain any heavy metals, and when completely dry, is considered harmless. However, it is not recommended that it be used on items that may be chewed or inserted into the mouth as it may present a choking hazard.

I take that to mean that you won't want to dip the spoon end, but the handle should be fine.

By: FauxScot

FauxScot — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:04:27 -0800

For keys, i often id them with distinctive drill holes. Might work for metal stuff. No need to drill all the way through. Use a tiny bit and place a small mark in a non essential surface. You just need an ID mark. Use the same mark technique on all.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:13:40 -0800

The usual line cook way of doing this is etching.

By: bonheur

bonheur — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:12:08 -0800

Teacher's trick: count them out, count them in. Nobody leaves until everything is returned.

As for marking, I like the idea of electrical tape in a weird color.

By: gyusan

gyusan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:24:59 -0800

You want an engraving pen.

By: anonymisc

anonymisc — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:58:16 -0800

I think it's about $60 to get the supplies (and gold) to gold-plate metal objects via electroplating.

By: Sphinx

Sphinx — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:59:42 -0800

Drill a small hole in the handle. Or maybe two.

By: Ideefixe

Ideefixe — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:07:55 -0800

Nail polish.

By: rabbitrabbit

rabbitrabbit — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:16:08 -0800

Yeah, a lot of the Jewish families I know use nail polish on the handles of one set of silverware to distinguish kosher from non-kosher.

By: Confess, Fletch

Confess, Fletch — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:18:38 -0800

They'll steal the marking when they steal the measuring cup so I don't see how that solves anything. So I'll second the military/aviation style tool control system.

By: whatzit

whatzit — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:26:47 -0800

Seconding etching and nail polish, from my own experience. Sometimes things disappear anyway, but usually out of rudeness or inconsideration than bad intentions. Missing items would often turn up a few days later.

By: Elementary Penguin

Elementary Penguin — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:42:07 -0800

Seconding a lot of people, when my wife went to patisserie school, the order of the day was unique duct tape for the handle, and her initials engraved in the metal.

By: Dr Dracator

Dr Dracator — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:20:55 -0800

Another vote for the engraving pen, I use one to help segregate lab equipment and tools. You will need some practice if you care about the result coming out pretty.

By: bonehead

bonehead — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:34:57 -0800

Tool dips like plasti-dip work extremely well in my experience. Tape, printable lables and markers are much less permanent solutions, and are eventually removed by handling or washing. We use it for this purpose in a chemisty lab/machine shop setting.

By: mskyle

mskyle — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:46:24 -0800

A chemical-resistant lab marker could also do the trick - they're more permanent than "permanent" markers.

I use nail polish on my keys (to distinguish front door key from back door key) and it wears off after a while. But then my keys probably get bumped around more than my average fork.

By: theora55

theora55 — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 07:15:25 -0800

Plasti-dip would be esthetically pleasing. I have a roll of blaze orange electrical tape and use it to flag the remotes, my phone, and other items that tend to visually disappear. If you buy a unique color of tape, it will prove useful. Same with an engraving pen; inexpensive, and once you own one, you'll find additional uses, like tagging your bike, laptop, etc. Food safety - handles should not be in the food anyway, but plast-dip or engraving are better in that regard. (says I, who has a pot with an electrical-taped handle)

By: aimedwander

aimedwander — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 07:17:49 -0800

Electrical tape goes through the dishwasher many many times. I've had better luck with a small square placed somewhere out-of-the-way (like the back of the wide part of the handle) than doing a wrap of tape. I put them on my serving utensils when I was hosting a potluck 3 years ago, and they're still there after many trips through the dishwasher. I used yellow tape and wrote my name on the tape in sharpie, and my name is faded out on the ones I wash most.

By: Confess, Fletch

Confess, Fletch — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:00:23 -0800

Why not just get a bunch of 'cheap and nasty' ones and accept that they will go missing?

By: you must supply a verb

you must supply a verb — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 03:11:50 -0800

Sugru?

'sugru is the exciting new self-setting rubber that can be formed by hand. It moulds like play-dough, bonds to almost anything and turns into a strong, flexible silicone rubber overnight.'

They say 'Once cured, sugru is inert, but people can be allergic to anything, so we have to tell you to be careful. sugru isn't certified as food safe yet, but we're working on it. For now, please resist the urge to eat it.' But if it's just on the handles, this shouldn't be an issue.