Kyle brought his set of kitchen knives over to sharpen them with my diamond plate and water stones. The knives were in great shape but his original knife block was water-marked and starting to delaminate a bit. It was in the fall, so I had plenty of time to draw up a design and have a new knife block ready by Christmastime. I made a sketch and took dimensions from his existing block and knives while he was sharpening beside the sink. If he noticed me poring over his block and knives, he was kind enough not to ask any questions!
Maple seemed like a good choice for wood species, and finishing with food-safe walnut oil put a nice sheen on the finished knife block. After gluing up the main slabs, dadoed to accommodate the blades and sharpening steel, I added thin veneers of maple to hide the glue lines and then hid the veneers by rounding over the edges at the router table. As a bit of decoration, I engraved the new WÜSTHOF logo and name on the top board before glue-up, and filled the engraving with red and black two-part epoxy.
The existing knife block was starting to delaminate
The original knife block
Kyle put a keen edge on his knives with my sharpening stones
Sharpening is easy and satisfying with the right equipment and a bit of patience and perseverance
The SketchUp design and some rough 4/4 maple stock
Maple boards sized, surfaced and ready for the next steps
Keeping the boards in order when machining the dadoes was easier with some careful numbering
Setup for gluing up the paring knife block
Cooking in the clamps
Engraved top board, leveled and ready for the epoxy pour
Red and black tinted epoxy carefully administered with the help of some disposable syringes
Filled engraving, machined down with a flycutter and sanded to 400 grit
Ready for gluing up the main block
Painter’s tape helps project the Bessey parallel clamps from squeeze-out
Glued up main block with thin veneer sides added to cover the glue joints
Some creative clamping to assemble the angled paring knife block to the main block
With all corners rounded off and everything sanded, it was time for the first application of walnut oil
The heat-treated walnut oil from wood turner Mike Mahoney leaves a beautiful. food-safe sheen and really brought out the epoxy inlays
Side view of the finished knife block
The finished knife block staged with some of my kitchen knives
Front view of the staged knife block
Happily, all of Kyle’s knives and sharpening steel fit nicely into his new knife block
