I used to take my kids to Baskin Robbins Ice Cream in South Austin. Either a location on So. Congress and couple of blocks south of Oltorf or the one on Stassney Lane. What I always observed was the amount of effort it took for the employees there to dish out the very hard frozen ice cream. I also experienced the same thing at home.

I went on a quest to find or make the very best ice cream scoop. I tried many different things, from a type of vibrating handle to different types and shapes of scoops. I bought scoops everywhere I ran across them.

The one pictured here is one I made or rather altered from a scoop that I bought at HEB.

It was a simple aluminum scoop, that I took a Dremel Tool to create a serrated edge on it. That was almost 40 years ago and it has performed quite well for all these years.

Due to my going on a ice cream scoop buying frenzy we have had an abundance of scoops in our kitchen for all these years. But I always prefer the serrated one.

I suppose that like with so many things in my life, by the time I got it working like I wanted, I was off to another adventure. Just think if I would have stayed with it, I could have been the Ice Cream Scoop King.

I carried a small tool box around with me back then that had a couple of prototypes in it.

I had a little vibrating motor deal I was adapting a scoop to.

There was an electrical engineer down at UT that enjoyed tinkering with stuff. I gave him my box full of goodies one day. I figured it would come nearer getting done with UT’s resources behind it.

I didn’t hear anything out of the guy for awhile. Then I found out he died. So that was that!!!!!

MORE ABOUT THE UT ENGINEER: He had not always been very fortunate.
In his younger years he was flying an airplane. As he went in for a landing, his landing gear struck a high-line wire. That brought him to a fast stop. Dropped him to the ground on his head.

This left him a little addled. But it didn’t kill him.

Jan Stanford Tomison he had not always been very fortunate.
In his younger years he was flying an airplane. As he went in for a landing, his landing gear struck a high-line wire. That brought him to a fast stop. Dropped him to the ground on his head. He was hanging upside down, unfastened his seatbelt harness and fell to the ground – so he really did drop to the ground on his head.

This left him a little addled. But it didn’t kill him.

Maybe he wasn’t the best choice to turn my scoop project over to.