Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Wooden Knife Block

Ok, so clearly I have been slacking on this blog, but I'm hoping updating it even with past projects will help me get inspired to get some new ones going. 

This project was for a knife block for my parents. It was for Christmas in 2008, but is still being used and still looks pretty good. I had some really nice figured maple and some thin purpleheart I got at KJP already milled to the thickness I wanted as I don't have a planner or jointer.

I roughed out dimensions based on the knives they had with some extra spots, and quickly worked it up in solidworks, to give me an accurate cut list.

 I used the bandsaw to rip all the boards to length and then planed them flat.

All the pieces ready for assembly.

One of the glue ups. I needed a few slots to  be thicker so I doubled up on the purpleheart strips.

My makeshift gluing set up. I need more clamps!

This was the trickiest to get right as the purpleheart pieces had to be flush on each side, and the center divider in the thick slot had to be in a certain place. 

All of the sections glued up and ready for some work.

Everything aligned really well. all the strips lined up on the top two rows and the outer strips on the bottom row aligned with the top ones. Yay!

The finished product. I missed capturing the routering and cleaning up of the tops as well as the hardest part which was getting the slant on the bottom.

The figured maple came out really nicely with the finish and the purpleheart stands out nicely. A note after a few years of use, would be that I'd put a more durable finish on it. I only used mineral oil which is nice, but keeps needing to be reapplied. Maybe i'll do it one of these days when i'm home.