The Original UFO

How a small Connecticut shop invented the round bread lame.

Before the UFO, a bread lame was a straight stick with a razor on the end. There was the curved blade, precariously bent onto a metal stick, or the wood straight-blade type with a serious knob that dragged on the dough. They worked, but they fought you. Tyler, who started Wire Monkey, figured there had to be a better design.

The UFO Bread Journey.

So he made one. He took the blade off the end of a stick and placed it between two discs that you twist to expose the blade or tuck it safely away. With the blade in the center of a circle instead of the end of a handle, you can turn the tool any direction, hold it at any angle, and let the cut follow the curve of the loaf. Nothing gets in the way. That was the UFO, the first of its kind.

What started as a fix for our own scoring became the thing Wire Monkey is known for. Bakers who wanted their loaves to look like art finally had a tool built for it. The round shape that seemed strange at first is now everywhere, copied around the world.

A fern and leaf design scored with the UFO Corbeau. Photo by Renee Pullen.

There is only one original.

We do not spend our energy fighting the knockoffs. We keep making the original. Every UFO is made by us in Fairfield, Connecticut, the same small shop, the same three people. No plastic. No overseas factory. A warranty behind every tool, and a share of what we make goes back to causes we care about. When you buy it from us, you are buying it from the people who invented it.

Left to right: UFOs Zero, Bread Journey and Peace.

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