My daughter wants something different (made by dad) from the usual slotted rectangular blocks or magnetic strips for her kitchen knives. Something elegant, turned to hold about six knives, all the way from butcher to chef's to paring sizes. Also a special holder for two special carving knives.
I'm trying to conceive a glued up turning blank with slots made with separated vertical strips or dadoed planks and sides thick enough to allow for turning the holder into a cylindrical or oval shape, Also trying to conceive of a turned holder incorporating magnets. I'm getting nowhere. I'd sure appreciate any ideas or references. Or just send encouragement!
Awhile back I posted questions for ideas about a knife block, though not a turned one. I've ended up with too many other projects in front of that one, so the knives are still sitting out on the counter.
In the meantime my wife's parents showed up with an ancient crock pot her grandmother used to use to hold utensils. (Now it's cluttering up the counter next to the knives, too.) But I've been thinking I'll just make a wooden protective disk for the bottom, and put a wooden ring or another wooden disk for the top, with slots for the kinves to hold their edges away from the pot. I can make this much more quickly than the other block that I drew up (which is nice, but will be time consuming to make).
For your needs, maybe you can make the same sort of structure that the crock pot has, but without filling in all the sides. Kind of like a turned lattice work, or a coopered basket missing slats (staves? I don't know what they're called). Add inlays or laminate contrasting veneer for extra effect. Put the staves on an angle, if you like. Make them curved to give a twisted effect. Add a removable lid with slots as I described above.
To make it, maybe make a solid blank that fills the interior, attach the (removable) staves to that, somehow, turn it, then remove the blank when you're done. Ask here for more experienced advice about the implementation part of the project.
I saw a very odd one in a movie a while back- shaped vaguely like a person, with the knives stuck through the chest and the blades protruding from the back. Probably too morbid for most, but I would think that any shape would do. The only real concern would be that there would be a pretty high potential for cutting yourself if you slipped near the knife block.
Can't recall the name of the movie, but it was some sort of surrealist film about a guy who went into a coma during a medical procedure gone wrong, and his subsequent dreams. The most striking bit was the knife block in question, though- it seemed like an awfully neat idea to have only the first couple of inches past the handle supported, and the blades exposed- and it'd be a perfect turning project. For safety's sake, maybe a clear plexiglass cover attached to the back of the block wouldn't be such a bad idea.
Consider a base in the shape of a hemisphere. Drill holes in the base to accept the individual knife holders at desired angles.
Make knife holder blanks out of two pieces of wood, with a routed area for the blade. The blanks are glued together after routing. Turn these blanks into individual cones, shaped like rocket cones, that have the tip going to a dowel shape, rather than a point. The cones are sized according to the knife dimensions. Most nice knives have roughly a cone shape. These individual holders are glued into the hemispheric base. Every surface of the knife rack would be lathe turned.
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.