In this video we're making a modern and unique knife block that's open on the sides to organize and show off these cool black Dalstrong Shadow Black Series knives for the kitchen. I made things extra difficult for me by using white oak wood scraps and offcuts that most woodworkers would consider unfit for anything more than a firepit 😅. I glued the pieces into a small edge grain butcher block panel to make the sides for the project. The slots on top were cut to fit my Dalstrong Shadow Black Series 8" Chef's Knife, 7" Santoku Knife, 5.5" Utility Knife, and a 3.75" Paring Knife. I really love the end result! Hope you guys enjoy the build as well! 😊
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Check out the full video below!
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TOOLS + MATERIALS
STEP 1: BREAKING DOWN LUMBER
I was cleaning out the shop and found a bunch of white oak offcuts from a project I just completed. So our first step is to rip the pieces down to 25mm (roughly 1"). And this will be the thickness of the panel we'll glue up later, because they're going to be face glued together. Then, use a crosscut sled to cut the pieces down to random lengths. Most important thing is to make sure the ends of the pieces are nice and clean for glueup. The final length doesn't matter.
Step 2: glue up
In order to glue up the strips, we'll need to put a piece of MDF on top of the clamps so the small pieces won't fall down. I also applied a layer of packing tape on top of the MDF so the glue won't stick to it.
Once all the strips are cut, we'll apply glue to the faces and the ends of the pieces to glue them up into an edge-grain butcher block. After the glue has dried, we'll run the panel through the planer to clean up the glue and smooth out the surfaces.
step 3: cutting miters
Looking at the model from a side view, we can see that the angles on all four corners are different. The bottom right corner is formed by two 47.5-deg miters, the bottom left are two 39-deg miters, the top left is two 45-deg miters, and the top right corner are two random angles.
The ones that are 45 degrees and above are pretty straight forward to cut. We'll just lay the panel flat on the table saw, tilt the blade to those angles, and make the cut. But since we can't tilt the blade less than 45 degrees, we'll need to use a tenoning jig to hold the workpiece vertically, and set the table saw blade at the complementary angle to make the cut. So in the case of the 39-deg angle, we'll need to set the blade to 51 degrees.
For the last set of angles, I'm just going to cut the top panel to 48.5 degrees, but not make the final cut on the back panel yet. Because we'll do a dry fit with all four pieces to lay out the final angle and where it needs to be cut. This is the easiest way to give us the best results.
Once all the miters have been cut, we can use the tape method to glue up the frame.
step 4: cut recess for steel plate
Even though it's not a solid knife block, it weighed 5 pounds. Which surprised me! I still thought it's a good idea to add a bit more weight to it. So I decided to attach a 6x4 steel plate to the bottom, which weighed 12 ounces.
To attach this plate, we're going to use a router and a flush trim bit to cut a recess in the bottom surface for the plate to sit into.
First, we're going to use a jigsaw to cut a rectangular hole in a scrap piece of 1/4" plywood, which will act as our template.
Then we'll attach the template to the bottom surface of the knife block with some double sided tape. And the bearing on the bit will ride along the edge of the template to cut out the recess.
step 5: cutting knife slots
I've only got four knives, a chef's knife, a santoku knife, a utility knife, and a pairing knife. These knives have a blade thickness of roughly 2mm, so I'm going to use a 1/8" (~3.2mm) bit at my router table to cut these slots.
The fence on the router table controls the position of the slots, and the stops on the fence will control the length of the slots. One thing to keep in mind is that the longer the slots, the more the knife will tilt inside the slot. So I only cut the slots about 3mm longer than the widest part of the knife. I've attached an image of the position and size of the slots. Yours may differ depending on the knives you have.
Keep in mind, the bit is pretty small, so only take about 2mm cuts per pass. It'll take some time, but it's better than a broken bit!
step 6: sanding and finishing
All that's left to do now is a little bit of sanding and apply finish. I like to use this Satin water-based topcoat because it's easy to apply, dries fast, and best of all, it doesn't darken the wood like most oil-based finishes do. So I think this is much better for light colored woods like this.
After finishing, I will apply some rubber feet on the bottom. Since the knife block is likely to come in contact with water often, the rubber feet I use here is much better than the ones that stick to the surface.