Devin’s Knife Block

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 used Maple and Walnut on this piece, finished with a couple coats of Watco 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 of the knife block 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 knife block I think I would simplify the design. Perhaps I would 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 apply glue to wood).