Devin’s Knife Block – Viewer Project
This week, we have another set of “themed” posts. I recently created the Popular Woodworking knife block as a Guild project, and I received a few emails from folks who either made knife blocks before or were inspired by the project. This particular one was submitted by Devin.
I originally learned of this style of knife block from this site. While reading the comments on his page I stumbled across this site (there are some nice pieces in there) and that was when I decided I needed to make one of these myself.I used Sketchup to get some ideas down and then made a quick prototype to ensure that the knives would stay in place with a 45 degree angle and to ensure that the size looked right in the kitchen.
I’ve used Maple and Walnut on this piece, finished with a couple coats of Watco’s Danish Oil, I’ll be applying two coats of poly or varathane in a couple days. There are over 1800 skewers in the main section alone. The bottom section is for steak knives and as a last minute addition I decided to add the slot for a pair of scissors.
I had grossly underestimated the amount of fiddling around that walnut trim was going to cause. If I were to make another one of these I think I would simplify the design, maybe use nicer wood rather than try to design interesting elements into it. I really struggled with all the miters, cutting them accurately was easy enough but getting them to stay in place while clamping was a real challenge (and I really don’t like challenges or surprises after I’ve applied glue to wood).
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Wow, walnut and maple look great together. Nice work, I bet those miters gave your trouble but nice work! How did you pick walnut and maple? Do you know they go so well together or do you have the equivlent of a “color wheel” for wood?
thats cool my dad built one but it was like a spin design
How cool is that! Makes the knife holder I have in the kitchen look like a scrap piece of wood! I’m glad you went the extra mile and didn’t simplify. I think we’d see more quality pieces of woodworking if woodworkers would make the extra effort.
Very nice piece.
How did you cut the miters? Miter gauge? Miter saw? Miter sled?
I wonder if applying the walnut to the end of maple stock (say, cutting rabbets on each face and filling with the walnut) would simplify the process. Of course, you would have end grain, rather than face grain on the end of the ‘box’.
It’s beautiful. Nice work. No regrets.
Devin: That’s a nice twist on the design. Looks edgy with all those points sticking out.
Marc: the site is so fast now! I could get used to this.
Very nice knife block. The extra time to fit the walnut trim pieces really paid off. Maple and walnut combination is great!
I can appreciate the miters and all the effort that they took. But you pulled it off. I think it looks great.
Nice work, I like the contrasting woods and the 1800+ skewers. The great thing about that knife block is if you have a mongolian bar-b-q and need more skerwers you’ll know where to get them!!! Nice job!
Devin
I’m glad you decided to put this one up. I mentioned it when Marc did his knife block project and I put the link to your LJ pics in my reply I know several people had to be viewing them. It really is a great piece…man if I could produce something half as nice I would be happy.
Cheers
John
As a buddy of Devin’s I watched this design and project unfold. First in Sketch-Up, then in real life. Devin did a great job thinking through all the details. He’s a very talented guy, and completely dedicated to the art of wood.
Way to go Dev!