I once saw a “Green Acres” show in which Oliver used Lisa’s hotcakes’ leftovers as gasket material. I wish. I recently had to buy a gasket kit for my old bike and after searching the internet found a real “deal” for $80.00. My question is: What could I have used to make my own head gasket? I tried a Napa Auto Parts store and they told me that they had nothing I could use. Any help? Too late now, but who knows what will happen in the future. 
You probably can’t make your own head gaskets at home. Head gaskets are of heat resistant material. Each cylinder cut-out has the gasket material further protected by metal to prevent gradual erosion as a result of the high temperatures and pressures in the combustion chamber. That later feature would be the real fly in the ointment. Unfortunately, when you need a head gasket you just have to bite the bullet.
Speaking of head gaskets I saw on “A Bike is Born” yesterday that he used a copper gasket. Could I use a copper sheet as a gasket?
You could use copper but it would likely not seal well on a car engine unless both head and block were planed very carefully and even then I doubt it would seal well. The cylinder head on that bike was probably designed for a copper gasket. Head gaskets for auto engines are made to crush slighty as the head is torqued down to ensure a good seal and has lots of little holes for coolant and oil that all must be sealed from each other.
Look, the simple answer is that the head gasket is a vital part of the engine. The commercial gasket came about as a result of considerable engineering, testing and experience gained over years of trial and error.
To think that you can replace it with a homemade affair is wildly unrealistic.
As the old story goes, “Pay the man the two dollars.” Or 80 or whatever it takes.
Copper head gaskets are generally thought of as a high performance part, used on high compression engines where a composite gasket might fail.
My impresion was these were made with soft copper (sorry, I can’t help you with which alloy; actually, I can’t help with any specifics.) The copper was cut to shape, then annealed by heating it for some time and letting it gradually cool. I don’t think that copper gaskets work well for sealing oil passages (or water passages in a water cooled engine), so any passages need to be machined for o-rings.
The difference in thickness between a copper gasket and a stock part will change an engine’s compression and may necessitate cutting down any dowel pins that locate the head onto the cylinders.
You can use just about any material you want as a gasket, and it will work as far as the function of a gasket is concerned. Mean time to failure, how much it screws up your system in failing, and performance over time (I.E. you feel like retorquing bolts once a week for three months as the material settles?) are the only considerations for using special materials or hybrid composites.
Anyway, you bought the real deal, right? Look on the box it came in, or look to see if there’s anything printed on the gasket itself. Basically, figure out what it’s made of, and order a roll of the same material. Then it’s time spent with shears, punches, and a good template to have as many as you want.