Candy cutting scissors GIF

[Jon]

Candy cutting scissors GIF. I wish I had more context for this GIF. It's not exactly a state-of-the-art candy cutting facility, but I like the tool.


https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...g_scissors.gif

[PJs]

Thanks Jon. I like the tool too. It has a simple elegance, old school design and use. It's also amazing how cleanly it cuts the brittle candy cane with only tiny bits left on the table. But in today's world I have a feeling the repetitive motion syndrome police would be all over it. Not that it is a bad thing...it just came into my head almost immediately after being a safety officer for a couple of years...another hat I wore in my travels.

~PJ

[mklotz]

It looks to me that it is fracturing rather than shearing the candy. If the candy is hard like a candy cane then fracturing would make more sense.

Either way, it's effective although I suspect that it would be easy to design a machine to do it. Small candy makers, though, like to use the old ways. I remember salt water taffy pulling machines on the boardwalk in Atlantic City that had patent dates in the 1880s on them.

[Jon]

I think you may be correct about fracturing. I found the original video; it looks like the GIF was taken from about 4:46. The confection is a UK hard candy treat called "rock" (not "rock candy"). In the US we would call this "stick candy", and it's essentially a straight candy cane. Apparently it's customary in the UK to manufacture it as a souvenir or promotional item, with a logo or location name embedded into the length of the candy, such that it's still legible after the candy is bitten.

More:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_(confectionery)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stick_candy

[PJs]

Interesting that Marv indicated small manufacturers still doing it old school and sure enough. Big roll to small, then twist, harden, fracture all by hand in small batches. The stretching machine also looked old school and hand pouring the flavors.

The wiki article on Rock was interesting in the idea of building the lettering in with strips to make lozenge type candies. Reminded me of knife making mosaic pins...only much tougher to do in a pliable substance.

Thanks for tracking down the video. Nice to see.

This showed up when I watched it on YT from 1957...narration is great imho.

[Jon]

I saw that video too! I bookmarked it for another Tool Talk post. One of the coolest manufacturing videos I have ever seen.

[PJs]

Sorry for stealing your thunder ...it is a very cool old school manufacturing video. Loved the spaceship copper boilers too.

[Toolmaker51]

I enjoy historic videos; YouTube or otherwise. Candy making, Westinghouse, Steam Powered Machine Shop, et al.
"How It's Made" kind of focuses on products, I want to see more on equipment and tooling than expensive toys.
But on this particular day, I submit

Sure, parts of it are staged photographically, but personal knowledge affirms they aren't models, just part of our Greatest Generation team's 'insurance policy'.

When someone advocates or justifies a 'service' economy, just show them picture of the Ms. riveting an engine cowl. In WWII, aside from supplying the US and Allies, our machine tool industry built 800,000 new machine tools. Multiple tiers of subcontractors ran them. Or, with untold numbers of planes in fabrication, how did sufficient Cleco springs get made, so hundreds (?) of riveters could do their job? Nonstop!
After conflict they re-tooled, fueling tremendous surge in consumer goods.
Call me capitalist, but without manufacturing there is no economy!

[Jon]

Good one. One of my favorites: