Lasers can be used to engrave all kinds of items, from coffee cups to leather belts to awards. One often overlooked use of laser engraving is personalizing cooking utensils. Cooking utensils are a great gift for chefs, recent cooking school grads and home cooks, and they only get better with personalization. That is where lasers come in.

Figure 1: Engraved utensil. Source: Epilog Laser

Chefs typically have their own kit of utensils for their restaurant. In a restaurant with “too many cooks in the kitchen,” it can be difficult to keep track of who owns which utensils. Laser engraved, personalized tools can eliminate this issue. At home, lasers can be used to engrave family members’ names onto the handles of cooking utensils.

Restaurant owners can also create personalized utensils for their restaurant with simple laser engraving. Owners can laser engrave restaurant logos onto their cooking utensils and silverware for branding across all areas of a restaurant. This creates a cohesive and unique look across an entire restaurant or restaurant chain.

Laser engraved utensils also make a great gift for parents. Grill masters can have a joke or food pun engraved onto their tongs or spatula. For the soup lovers in the family, a personalized ladle makes a great gift. Utensils with laser engraved phrases like “poisoned by [name]” can be given to an unskilled cook as a joke. There are many fun ways to personalize cooking utensils with lasers.

To laser engrave a metal cooking utensil, makers simply need a laser system, the utensil to be engraved and a metal marking agent like Enduramark or CerMark. First, spray the utensil with marking agent, which allows bare metals to be marked with a CO2 laser. While the paste is adhering into the utensil, upload the design or artwork to the graphic software. Place the utensil in the laser machine and use the red dot pointer to confirm where the artwork will engrave. Send the job to the laser and watch the design come alive. Once done, simply wipe away the excess marking agent.

Laser engraving is a great way to create customized gifts for the home cooks and professional chefs in anyone’s life. Before attending the next cooking school graduation or chef’s birthday party, consider gifting a personalized cooking utensil or set of utensils. Chefs and cooks will love it.

Learn more about lasers and laser engraving by visiting the Epilog Laser site.