Making a Butter Mould

One of my other passions is eating good food. I define good food as organic, mostly raw, free range, and entirely homemade, even the little details. In preparation for Thanksgiving I'm making a butter mould to make individual pats of butter that I'll make from scratch.  

Butter molds, at least the round ones are simple, only three pieces. I haven't done research into buter mold makers or what they call the different parts so I'll make it up as I go along. First I turned the Bell that's the cup looking part. It's 2" in diameter and 1 1/2" high. The cavity is 1 1/8" deep and tapers from the wide end to a square shoulder, there is also a 1/2" through hole in it's center. The Press has the impression in it. and tapers for a close fit around it's molding edge. Lastly there is a Plunger which is used to press the Press and butter mold out of the Bell. There is a blind hole in the Press to register the Plunger. On a traditional butter mould, I think the Plunger would be longer and it is threaded into the Press.

The Bell and Press are turned from sugar maple, the Plunger from cherry.   

I had a staggering amount of ideas for what to carve into the Press, I went with a pentagram, which is a symbol of nature, the elements, and also found on an antique butter mold I didn't buy. I think the mold is too plain, and plan to turn a ring around the outside of the pentagram when it dries.

Here are the finished pats of butter, it took some experimenting, and reading of arcane butter moulding passages to learn that slightly chilled butter and moulds primed in ice water make removal about 1,000,000Xs easier.  I still have to figure out a method of packing that reduces air gaps.