Building the Knife Block

Now that all four of the knives have been completed for my daughter's kitchen knife set, it's time to finish off the project with a little bit of woodworking.  Before I caught the knife-making bug, I dabbled in woodworking for a time.  Nothing too fancy, mind you, but I did enjoy the process of creating simple pieces out of wood.  It was nice to blow the dust off some of my old tools and work with wood again. Below are some photos I took of the process of putting the knife block together for the kitchen set.

The supply of hardwood is very limited here in my hometown.  Unless I go through the process of ordering wood from online sources, not being able to self select the materials and paying a fortune in shipping costs, I'm stuck with whatever the local lumberyards have in stock.  In this case my selection was between oak and plain old poplar.  Not much of a choice really, so oak it was.  Oak is not my favorite wood choice, but I think it will actually look good next to the box elder handle scales of the knives.  All of the available stock was also limited to 1" thick, which in reality is only 3/4" thick.  So, being impatient and ready to put this project to rest, I purchased some 1" x 12" stock and commenced the process of gluing up a laminated block.  Here's the stack of wood with my paper pattern on top. The rectangles on the pattern show where the blade holes will be located in the center of the block.

One of the benefits of laminating this block together is that I can cut out the blade holes before I glue up the block.  To get started on this, I need to plane down the thickness of the center layer to about 3/16", which will be slightly wider than the knife blades, but not too over sized to where the blades will be sloppy in the hole.  The old trusty thickness planer accomplishes this task.

Here's the board after being planed to thickness.

Next, I cut each of the five boards to shape on the table saw.  I could do this once everything is assembled if I had better equipment, but my table saw won't cut through the full thickness of the assembled piece.  So, each layer gets cut to shape separately before glue up.

With some trusty Elmer's rubber cement, the kind that you used back in grade school, I fix the pattern to the thin center layer.

With the pattern fixed to the wood, it's off to the band saw to cut out the blade recesses.  Here's the piece after the blade holes have been cut out.

With a little finessing and a lot of clamps, the five layers get glued up with some water resistant wood glue and allowed to dry.

Here's the block after the glue is dry and the clamps have been removed.  The edges are a little uneven, but we'll take care of that in the next step.

Using my jointer, I shave off the edges of the box until the surfaces are smooth and square to the sides of the block.

Here's the test fit with the knives in the block.  Amazingly enough, they actually fit!  Looks pretty good too.

To pretty things up a bit, I decided to chamfer the sharp edges around the block.  This is done with a chamfering bit at my router table.

Here's the block after the detail work is complete.  It's ready for some finish sanding.

Here's my trusty pad sander that was used to smooth things up.  I've logged many hours on this old thing and it just keeps on running.  Not bad for a cheap tool.

Here's the final piece after a hand-rubbed oil varnish has been applied.  Once the finish is dry, I'll apply a coat of wax and give it a buff to bring up the shine.  This project is so close to the end that I can almost taste it.  Once everything is finished, I'll brake out the good camera and take some better pics of this project and post them up for your viewing pleasure.

I brought the set into the house for my daughter to inspect.  I caught her in the kitchen slicing up some strawberries and, try as I may, I couldn't get her to try out her new knives.  So, I pulled out the paring knife from the block and started helping her cut up the berries. Someone had to take them out for a test drive!  Sharp, smooth, and comfortable.  They passed my own inspection with flying colors. Now, I'm pretty sure that my sweet wife is going to want her own set.  Hopefully I can squeeze in a few folders before that happens, as I'm hankering in the worst way to start on a new folding knife.  I had a great time with this project and produced what will hopefully be a family heirloom. Thanks for following along with me on this project and sharing in my knife-making adventures.

-  Brandant Robinson

Fourth and Final Knife Complete

Wow, what a roller coaster of a week.  I had great things happen, tragic things happen, and a bunch of things in between.  You probably have times like that in your lives too.  I suppose that is what life is all about; having experiences, learning from them, and becoming a better person because of them.

The fourth and final knife of my daughter's kitchen set is now complete.  Since it was built just like the other three, I didn't bother taking too many photos of the progress, but here are the few that I did take.

These chunks of steel shown above are the four bolsters for the chef's knife.  They have each been blocked out and the back sides have been ground flat on the disk grinder.

Here's the knife with the front bolsters attached.  The pins blended in very nicely.

The scales have been fitted to the handle, dovetailed, and the black liners have been attached.  I really like the looks of this box elder burl and I enjoyed working with it.  I'm going to have to use this stuff more often.

In this photo the rear bolsters have been attached and the scales have been temporarily pinned in place for a final fitting before epoxy is applied.  The fit is nice and tight. 

Here's a photo of the completed knife.  It's a smaller sized chef's knife, about 10.5 inches total length with a 7 inch blade.  That's about the maximum length that I can fit into my heat treat oven, so I am limited by my equipment.  I think it turned our really nice.  It feels great in the hand, is well balanced, and looks absolutely gorgeous.  I have no doubt that my daughter will enjoy using it.  I'll take some better photos of the set in the near future and post them up here on the Robinson Edge Blog.

Now, with the four knives complete, I just have to come up with a design for a block or stand to keep them in and at the ready on the kitchen counter.  I plan to make some kind of a stand out of wood that will compliment the handles and not detract from their beauty.  It will be fun to get back to my woodworking roots.  Wish me luck.

-  Brandant Robinson

Utility Knife Complete

Three down, one more to go.  I was able to complete the utility knife for my daughter's kitchen set over this last weekend.  I think it turned out just as nice as the others, in spite of a few hiccups along the way.  Here are a few photos of this weekend's work in the shop.

If you recall, we left off last week with the utility knife clamped up, waiting for the epoxy to cure. The next step was to finish up the handle.  Most all the shaping work took place on my grinder with either the flat platen or the slack belt attachment.  I progressed up through the grits until the handle was nice and shiny.  I finished up by hand to get into those hard-to-reach places and gave the bolsters a 600 grit hand-rubbed finish.

The blade gets my maker's mark etched in with my shop-built etching machine.

Here is the completed utility knife after the edge has been sharpened.  It matches up with the other two knives of the set really nicely.  Again, I'll take some better photos once the set is complete.  Won't be too much longer I hope.

On to the last knife of the set, the chef's knife.  Here's the knife bolted to my hand sanding jig, awaiting its satin finish.

After a whole lot of hand sanding, one side of the blade is finished.  I got the other side really close to completion too before I left the shop.  I hope to get this knife finished up soon.  As much fun as I've been having with this project, I'm ready to move back to my folders.  I sure hope my daughter appreciates the time and effort that has gone into making these knives for her.  Thanks for following along with me on this build.

-  Brandant Robinson

The Chef Set Saga Continues

I hope everyone enjoyed their Independence day weekend as much as I did mine.  It was nice to gather around with family, get a few honey-do projects taken care of, and to take time to reflect on the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy here in the United States of America.

In between the celebrations and the projects, I managed to make a little progress on the utility knife of my daughter's kitchen knife set.  Here are a few pics showing last weekend's accomplishments.

I spent some time completing the hand-rubbed finish on the blade of this knife and covered it with the handyman's secret weapon to protect the finish from scratches.  The bolsters have been blocked out from a bar of 1/4 inch thick 416 stainless and the inside surfaces have been ground flat on the disk sander.

Here are the six pins for the knife made from 3/16 inch 416 stainless pin stock, cut to length and ready to be put to use.

The front bolsters have been drilled and glued together so that the front ends can be ground to match. Here they are still glued together with a 600 grit finish on the faces.  I use a small drop of super glue to hold them together while matching.  A simple tap on a hard surface is enough to break the glue joint when the time comes to separate them.

The back ends of the bolsters get a 30 degree dovetail ground in.

After some work at the anvil, the front bolsters have been attached.  No visible pins after a quick spin on the grinder means that the process was done right.

Time to work on the scales.  Here they are with the front edges fit to the front bolsters and the black liners glued in place.

This picture shows the scales pinned temporarily in place.  The front pin is way to far forward for my liking, but it's the price to pay after making the big mistake with the scales on the last knife.  If you recall, I had to scrap a set of scales, which meant I only had just enough matching box elder burl for one more set so that all four knives would match.  So, on this knife, I had to extend the back of the front bolster in order for there to be enough scale material for this knife.  Since the holes were already drilled through the hardened tang, I was stuck with the pin location.  It just goes to show that one mistake can ripple out in a large project.  Oh well, I can live with it.  Live and learn I guess.

Here the rear bolsters have been installed and peened in place.  You can see the heads of the pins here which will get ground off flush.

With the handle assembled, I ground the parts down to the correct profile.  Even with that front scale pin a little forward, this should still be an attractive piece.

Here's a spine view to show off the tapered tang and the look of the dovetailed bolsters and black liners.  Pretty snazzy!

The last thing accomplished was to glue the scales in place.  Epoxy is always a messy ordeal, but it's a necessary evil to keep things fixed.  I should be able to get this knife finished up next week and be on to the last piece of the set.  Thanks for following along with me on this build.

-  Brandant Robinson

Boning Knife Complete

I made a little more progress on my daughter's kitchen knife set this past weekend.  Knife number two of four is now complete, meaning that I'm halfway there.  Here are a few photos of the progress.

Here's the knife where I left off last week with its chunky-state handle.  Everything is glued and pinned together.  Looks terrible, doesn't it?

The "chunky" bolsters and scales get profiled ground down to the tang.  That's much better.

After spending some time at the grinder, followed by some hand finishing, the knife is practically done.  I know I said it before with the paring knife, but I really like the looks of the black liners with these light-colored wood scales.  Very classy.

An artist needs to sign his work, so here's the boning knife with my maker's mark etched in.

And here's the finished knife.  The handle got an oil rubbed finish with a coat of wax.  The edge is crazy sharp and should make for a real nice meat slicer.  Hopefully that meat doesn't turn out to be my daughter's finger. . .

In addition to the boning knife, I made some good progress on the utility knife, finishing the hollow grind and getting the hand-rubbed finish nearly complete.  This weekend I should have a little more shop time, so I hope to get the next knife completed.  If all goes well, I should be able to finish this set up and make a nice base for it in the next couple of weeks.  Thanks for following along with me on this adventure into kitchen culinary tools.

-  Brandant Robinson

The Chef Set Continues

With the paring knife finished up last week, I spent this week working on the boning knife for my daughter's chef set.  I didn't get as much shop time as I had hoped, but I made some good progress on this knife and a little more work done on the last two knives of the set.  I don't know how it happened, but I lost several of the progress photos I took along the way.  My phone has been acting kind of weird lately, so that's probably the problem.  Anyway, here's the progress.

Here is the boning knife attached to my hand sanding jig.  you can tell that it's much too long for the small jig.  I'm used to finishing 3" folder blades and most of my equipment is designed to suit those needs.  This nearly 7" blade overhangs the edge by a couple inches, which was a little precarious with the point aimed at my gut, but I made due and came out the other side without any wounds.

600 grit hand-rubbed finish accomplished.  Pretty!

Onto the handle fittings.  The front and rear bolsters are blocked out and scales book matched and ready to go.  I'm not to proud or confident to confess that I skipped a step and messed up this set of scales,  I got in a hurry and forgot to attach the black fiber liners before fitting the scales to the bolsters.  A great big OOPS!  If this knife wasn't intended to be part of a matching set of knives, I would have left the knife unlined and went on my merry way.  But, since it's part of a set for someone whom I love, the scales were scrapped.  As luck would have it, I had enough leftover box elder burl to make a new set of scales from the same block as the other knives.  I'm so happy the block was a little over sized to compensate for my boneheadedness.

Rule number one of knife making is take your time and think things through.  When you get in a hurry, you end up making big mistakes.  I still make my fair share of mistakes, but I try to learn from them and do better next time.

The front bolsters get drilled to fit the holes in the knife tang, pinned together, and the front faces matched and finished up to a 600 grit finish, just like the blade.  Once these are installed, finishing the front faces is extremely difficult.  That's why the faces get finished before they get installed.

The bolsters get their dovetails ground in and are ready to be attached.  I also use a tapered pin reamer which turns the cylindrical holes through the bolsters conical.  This way the pin has room to expand as it's peened into the hole, locking it to the tang very securely.

After some work at the anvil, the front bolsters are attached and the excess pin stock is ground away.  I love it when bolsters just disappear like they are supposed to.

The scales get their liners glued to the backs and the beveled faces where they mate with the bolster dovetails.  I simply love how this black liners look against these blond scales.  Sometimes things just work out right.

Well, folks, that's the end of the photos, but not the end of the progress made on the chef's set.  I was able to get the scales fit to the boning knife, the rear bolsters attached, the scales epoxied and pinned in place, and the faces of the handles ground flush after the epoxy had cured.  I also made some headway on the hollow grinds of the utility and chef's knives and started hand sanding the utility knife.  If you want to see how these steps were done, everything was accomplished in the same fashion as the paring knife build, so you can refer back to the previous posts if interested.  If you have any questions, leave a comment or shoot me an email and I'll be happy to answer.

Thanks for following along with me on this knife building adventure.  This week I hope to get the time to finish the boning knife and make more progress on the other two.

-  Brandant Robinson

One Down, Three to Go

This last week I was able to get the first of the four knives finished for my daughter's chef's knife set.  When I showed it to her, her eyes lit up and the smile on her face was well worth what it took to make the knife.  The other three are progressing well too.  Here are some pics of what I was able to accomplish.

Above is a photo of the finished handle on the paring knife.  The satin finish on the bolsters really sets off the box elder burl scales, and the black liners really define the scales as well.  Dark liners look great with light-colored scales.  The opposite is true as well; light-colored liners look terrific with dark scales.

Here is a spine view of the handle to show off the dovetails and the look of the liners.  I like it!

I put an oil finish on the paring knife handle, and while it was drying, I got started on grinding the last two knives, the chef's knife and utility knife.  Here they are with the initial hollow grinds completed.  I got a new 8" contact wheel for the grinder this week and gave it its maiden voyage with these two.  It worked great.  After the initial grinds, they went into my heat treatment process.  They'll be ready to go the next time I get out to my shop.  I also got a good start on hand sanding the boning knife as well.

Here is a photo of the finished paring knife.  I designed the handle to fit my daughter's hand, which it does wonderfully.  It's also very well balanced and screaming sharp.  Should make her a great kitchen companion for hopefully the rest of her life.  She was very happy with it and I can't wait to see what the whole set looks like together when finished.  Thanks for tagging along with me on this adventure.  More to come next week.

-  Brandant Robinson