Custom made knife block

Custom made knife block

I am on a quest. I need a knife block that appears to be out of the
ordinary. It has to house: 2 Chinese cleavers with quite large blades, 1
meat cleaver with a not as large blade, 10" chef's knife, a long bladed
carving knife, a long bladed slicing knife, a bread knife, a couple of
smaller knives, and a steel. If it has more slots, that's okay. I don't need
to store my steak knives here, as I have a separate wooden case for them.
I can fulfill most of the requirements with many blocks on the market, but
nothing that will also house the cleavers. There is one that's close, in the
Katana Series by Calphalon. But they give no dimension on the knife slots.
Googled for custom block makers, and other than a couple of how-to (actually
more like here's an overview of how I built mine) I found only one: Knives
by Walden. The website has absolutely no email address I can find, nor any
brick-and-mortar place, or at least nothing that displays in Firefox. Dose
anybody here l know anything about this person? I mean, even his order page
has no button to click on to send an order!
Failing that, does anyone here know of a good, reputable custom block maker?
--
de N2MPU Jack
Modeling the NYC/NYNH&H in HO and CP Rail/D&H in N
Proud NRA Life Member

Re: Custom made knife block

Jack wrote:
> I am on a quest. I need a knife block that appears to be out of the
> ordinary. It has to house: 2 Chinese cleavers with quite large blades, 1
> meat cleaver with a not as large blade, 10" chef's knife, a long bladed
> carving knife, a long bladed slicing knife, a bread knife, a couple of
> smaller knives, and a steel. If it has more slots, that's okay. I don't need
> to store my steak knives here, as I have a separate wooden case for them.
> I can fulfill most of the requirements with many blocks on the market, but
> nothing that will also house the cleavers. There is one that's close, in the
> Katana Series by Calphalon. But they give no dimension on the knife slots.
> Googled for custom block makers, and other than a couple of how-to (actually
> more like here's an overview of how I built mine) I found only one: Knives
> by Walden. The website has absolutely no email address I can find, nor any
> brick-and-mortar place, or at least nothing that displays in Firefox. Dose
> anybody here l know anything about this person? I mean, even his order page
> has no button to click on to send an order!
> Failing that, does anyone here know of a good, reputable custom block maker?

Should be a straightforward job for one of the more commercially
inclined folks in rec.woodworking, which I have crossposted.
--
Del Cecchi
"This post is my own and doesn’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions,
strategies or opinions.”

Re: Custom made knife block

Jack wrote:
> I am on a quest. I need a knife block that appears to be out of the
> ordinary. It has to house: 2 Chinese cleavers with quite large
> blades, 1 meat cleaver with a not as large blade, 10" chef's knife, a
> long bladed carving knife, a long bladed slicing knife, a bread
> knife, a couple of smaller knives, and a steel. If it has more slots,
> that's okay. I don't need to store my steak knives here, as I have a
> separate wooden case for them.
> I can fulfill most of the requirements with many blocks on the
> market, but nothing that will also house the cleavers. There is one
> that's close, in the Katana Series by Calphalon. But they give no
> dimension on the knife slots. Googled for custom block makers, and
> other than a couple of how-to (actually more like here's an overview
> of how I built mine) I found only one: Knives by Walden. The website
> has absolutely no email address I can find, nor any brick-and-mortar
> place, or at least nothing that displays in Firefox. Dose anybody
> here l know anything about this person? I mean, even his order page
> has no button to click on to send an order!
> Failing that, does anyone here know of a good, reputable custom block
> maker?

I made one that holds 6 cleavers only but knives would be a problem either.
I didn't have power tools to do this with so I went to Lowes, bought the
wood needed then had them cut it (this is a free service at most places like
Home Depot and Lowes). Once the pieces were cut I simply hand sanded the
used epoxy to glue it together. For more information send me some email and
I'll be glade to send a picture of what it looks like. It really was pretty
inexpensive also to build, under $30. I'm now thinking of building a larger
cutting board table type that will hold about a dozen cleavers and about 30
knives. My email is straight as is.

--

Joe Cilinceon

Re: Custom made knife block

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:43:26 -0500, "Joe Cilinceon" <joecil@alltel,net > wrote:

>I made one.... For more information send me some email and
>I'll be glade to send a picture of what it looks like....

Any chance you could post a link to the picture here? Or if you prefer, send it
to me and I'll put it up on my server and post the link here? If the latter,
please send to rfe [at] xhost.org

This might be the incentive I need to trim my knife collection down to a
manageable number... 8;)

Thanks -- Larry

Re: Custom made knife block

Joe's custom-made knife block can be seen at:

http :// www .xhost.org/images/block1.jpg

http :// www .xhost.org/images/block3.jpg

http :// www .xhost.org/images/block4.jpg

Very nicely done.

-- Larry

Re: Custom made knife block

On 2/26/07 2:43 PM, in article ervd8t0l49@news2.newsguy,com , "Joe Cilinceon"
<joecil@alltel,net > wrote:

> Jack wrote:
>> I am on a quest. I need a knife block that appears to be out of the
>> ordinary. It has to house: 2 Chinese cleavers with quite large
>> blades, 1 meat cleaver with a not as large blade, 10" chef's knife, a
>> long bladed carving knife, a long bladed slicing knife, a bread
>> knife, a couple of smaller knives, and a steel. If it has more slots,
>> that's okay. I don't need to store my steak knives here, as I have a
>> separate wooden case for them.
>> I can fulfill most of the requirements with many blocks on the
>> market, but nothing that will also house the cleavers. There is one
>> that's close, in the Katana Series by Calphalon. But they give no
>> dimension on the knife slots. Googled for custom block makers, and
>> other than a couple of how-to (actually more like here's an overview
>> of how I built mine) I found only one: Knives by Walden. The website
>> has absolutely no email address I can find, nor any brick-and-mortar
>> place, or at least nothing that displays in Firefox. Dose anybody
>> here l know anything about this person? I mean, even his order page
>> has no button to click on to send an order!
>> Failing that, does anyone here know of a good, reputable custom block
>> maker?
>
> I made one that holds 6 cleavers only but knives would be a problem either.
> I didn't have power tools to do this with so I went to Lowes, bought the
> wood needed then had them cut it (this is a free service at most places like
> Home Depot and Lowes). Once the pieces were cut I simply hand sanded the
> used epoxy to glue it together. For more information send me some email and
> I'll be glade to send a picture of what it looks like. It really was pretty
> inexpensive also to build, under $30. I'm now thinking of building a larger
> cutting board table type that will hold about a dozen cleavers and about 30
> knives. My email is straight as is.
Saw the pix in a following post, and they look beautiful. Didn't know Lowes
would do such complicated cutting; thought all they'd do was crosscut and
rip cuts.
--
de N2MPU Jack
Modeling the NYC/NYNH&H in HO and CP Rail/D&H in N
Proud NRA Life Member

Re: Custom made knife block

wff_ng_7 wrote:
> "Jack" <radioman521@verizon,net > wrote:
>> Saw the pix in a following post, and they look beautiful. Didn't know
>> Lowes
>> would do such complicated cutting; thought all they'd do was
>> crosscut and rip cuts.
>
> I don't think the cutting is quite as complicated as you might think.
> I looks like he might have just gotten a 6" x 1" x 6' board and had
> it cut into 7 pieces each 8" long (plus some scrap). Then he had a
> wood strip, perhaps 1/4" x 1" x 8' cut into 12 pieces each 8" long.
>
> The block is made by taking a 6" x 1" x 8" board section, and adding
> 2 pieces of wood strip, 1/4" x 1" x 8" down each side. Add another
> board section, plus another 2 strips. Repeat until done.
>
> The knives sit in the gap between the boards created by the 1/4"
> thick wood strips.
>
> There's a lot of cutting involved, but none of the cutting is
> complicated.
> From the pictures, it looks like there is also something under the
> block as a whole as a foot, perhaps made of the remaining piece of
> wood scrap.

You are pretty close.
7 pc - 8" x 1" x 10" long
6 pc - 1/4" x 1" x 10" long then these are split in half.

This was all finished wood so take a bit off for example the finish size of
a 8 x 1 is really 7 5/8" x 5/8" or close to that. For knives you can just
add more strips between the blades. You could also make it say 15" then once
done cut an angle to lean it forward. The cleavers from front to back are as
follows:

Suien VC custom handle by Fish (slicer thin bladed)
CCK BBQ 1502 (heavy bone buster)
Masahiro M3 Fish handle (thin bladed)
Takeda Chukabocho (custom made kuro-uchi AS steel)
Town Food Service #1 (thin bladed)
CCK 1103 (thin bladed)

--

Joe Cilinceon

Re: Custom made knife block

On 2/27/07 8:58 AM, in article es1dea01n41@news2.newsguy,com , "Joe
Cilinceon" <joecil@alltel,net > wrote:

> wff_ng_7 wrote:
>> "Jack" <radioman521@verizon,net > wrote:
>>> Saw the pix in a following post, and they look beautiful. Didn't know
>>> Lowes
>>> would do such complicated cutting; thought all they'd do was
>>> crosscut and rip cuts.
>>
>> I don't think the cutting is quite as complicated as you might think.
>> I looks like he might have just gotten a 6" x 1" x 6' board and had
>> it cut into 7 pieces each 8" long (plus some scrap). Then he had a
>> wood strip, perhaps 1/4" x 1" x 8' cut into 12 pieces each 8" long.
>>
>> The block is made by taking a 6" x 1" x 8" board section, and adding
>> 2 pieces of wood strip, 1/4" x 1" x 8" down each side. Add another
>> board section, plus another 2 strips. Repeat until done.
>>
>> The knives sit in the gap between the boards created by the 1/4"
>> thick wood strips.
>>
>> There's a lot of cutting involved, but none of the cutting is
>> complicated.
>> From the pictures, it looks like there is also something under the
>> block as a whole as a foot, perhaps made of the remaining piece of
>> wood scrap.
>
> You are pretty close.
> 7 pc - 8" x 1" x 10" long
> 6 pc - 1/4" x 1" x 10" long then these are split in half.
>
> This was all finished wood so take a bit off for example the finish size of
> a 8 x 1 is really 7 5/8" x 5/8" or close to that. For knives you can just
> add more strips between the blades. You could also make it say 15" then once
> done cut an angle to lean it forward. The cleavers from front to back are as
> follows:
>
> Suien VC custom handle by Fish (slicer thin bladed)
> CCK BBQ 1502 (heavy bone buster)
> Masahiro M3 Fish handle (thin bladed)
> Takeda Chukabocho (custom made kuro-uchi AS steel)
> Town Food Service #1 (thin bladed)
> CCK 1103 (thin bladed)
As usual, I saw it as complicated where it wasn't. I hadn't thought of
individual pieces of wood stacked together. I was assuming dado-type cuts. A
couple of questions: did you seal the wood with something? If so, what?
--
de N2MPU Jack
Modeling the NYC/NYNH&H in HO and CP Rail/D&H in N
Proud NRA Life Member

Re: Custom made knife block

"Jack" <radioman521@verizon,net > wrote:
> As usual, I saw it as complicated where it wasn't. I hadn't thought of
> individual pieces of wood stacked together. I was assuming dado-type cuts.
> A
> couple of questions: did you seal the wood with something? If so, what?

Something you may or may not want to use... I found a very cheap substitute
for the block oil commonly used for cutting boards, etc. Block oil is
normally just food safe white mineral oil. Another form of food safe white
mineral oil is mineral oil laxative found in drug stores. The laxative form
is sold at a dramatically lower price than block oil. I found the viscosity
of the mineral oil laxative was a little higher than the block oil I was
using, but it's not objectionable.

If you look at ingredients lists or a MSDS (material safety data sheet) for
an item, you can often get a good idea what's in it. The reason I looked at
this originally was to see what was in oil for paper shredders. That is also
essentially pure white mineral oil (at least Staples brand). It's my opinion
that one can be substituted for another in certain ways. I don't hesitate to
use the mineral oil laxative on cutting boards, and I'll probably end up
using it in my paper shredder... isn't shredder oil a laxative for paper
shredders anyway? ;-) In the other direction I probably wouldn't do it. The
shredder oil is not necessarily food safe; it could contain traces of
chemicals that wouldn't matter to a shredder, but would to a human.

Yet another form of white mineral oil is baby oil, but most often it is
scented and not food safe.

Another trick I do sometimes is to combine mineral oil with melted paraffin
(the stuff used to seal jars of food) to make a wood sealer or finish that
lasts a bit longer than mineral oil alone.