Heath's Woodworking Projects

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:47 am

mrhart wrote:The requested page is currently unavailable
Your organization has chosen to limit viewing of this site (http://www.photobucket.com/), due to the rating of its content (image host).

There you have it.

Somebody needs to inform the 'organization' that 'images' are not necessarily 'porn'. Then again, why is one 'looking' at pix when 'working'?:rolleyes:

Is there a HVAC pix site????:D

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:53 am

There are waysto get around such restrictions...

Just be careful that doing so is not grounds for termination.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Sun Apr 07, 2013 10:58 pm

The handle to my wife's favorite kitchen knife broke so I decided to make a new one for it. The only picture I have taken so far is of the handleless knife.

I'm wondering what the best finish would be. It needs to be durable, water resistant, and since I hate lengthy finishing techniques, it has to be easy. I was thinking a spray poly? Suggestions?

mrhart · Post by **mrhart** » Sun Apr 07, 2013 11:07 pm

I have been using Butcher Block for all my kitchen stuff. Its wipe on oil, super easy. It's held up well, we just don't run them through the dishwasher, we hand wash them. Its not shiney fancy though.

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sun Apr 07, 2013 11:45 pm

Heath, I think you'd be better off with some kind of oil finish. Be it BLO, tung oil, mineral oil or butcher block oil. I'm knot real sure, but I think all butcher block oil is is mineral oil?

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 6:34 pm

I've been putting a coat of BLO on it every night (after a light sanding with 320 grit sandpaper). I plan to do that every night for a full week. Is that reasonable?

I started not to post pictures since this was something sort of a trivial project, but decided I'd go ahead since I was discussing it.

Knife, minus broken handle:

Knife with new handle:

It took me to think about how I was going to do this than the actual work itself. Once it dawned on me how to do it, it was quite easy.

I first took another knife and traced out the handle on a sheet of paper. Stuck that to a piece of maple about 1" thick and cut out the rough outline, then sanded pretty close to the line. Then, I resawed that piece, splitting it down close to the middle (I just eyeballed "center" and drew a line for reference). On one of the ~halves, I laid the blade where I wanted it to fit, and drew an outline. Using my 10ER drill press with a 1/4" router bit in the drill chuck, I routed out a very shallow recess inside that outline. The blade was a perfect, tight fit the first time. I had just taken a guess at the depth and had planned on sanding the wood down flush with the blade, but I nailed it out of sheer luck and felt flush to my fingertips without any adjustments. I put a tiny screw through the hole in the blade to hold it in place anyway (and used a brad point drill, slightly bigger than the screw head, to drill a recess for it on the other half). Then glued the two halves together, clamping aggressively. When it dried, I sanded until it felt comfortable. I thought it came out great. You can't see the seam between the halves unless you're trying hard to look for it. The only thing I wish I had done differently was perhaps to weight it as it feels a bit light. And maybe make it a little bigger. Or maybe take more time and laminate up some contrasting woods for a more interesting look.

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 7:44 pm

Nice Job.

I would also add the following suggestion for "Making it Pretty"

Instead of hiding the screw. Pin the blade all the way through the handles using a bolt or rivet (Brass or Stainless) and then peen it down and sand/file it flush.

Looks really good Heath.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 9:36 pm

I like the 'invisible' pinning.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 9:29 am

Thanks for the compliments. This was kind of a rush project, actually. I had thought about pinning the blade all the way through with a dowel (didn't think about a bolt), but didn't have one and my turning isn't good enough yet that I wanted to spend the additional time trying to make one.

I don't like to make the same thing twice, but now I'm sort of hoping she breaks another knife handle so I can try it again and do it better! I can look at it like bandsaw boxes where each one is different and unique enough to keep it interesting.

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 11:01 am

Oh honey, I was slicing some cheese and another knife handle broke. I took care of it:D

There are lots of ways to make dowels beside the lathe. In fact probably the most accurate is a sheet of steel (3/8" thick should do) with a hole drilled in it the desired size of your dowel. Cut stock close to size, and knock it through the dowel plate. These can be purchased, but they are rather simple to make.