Knotty Alder Knife Block WIP

Ryan Smith

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Ok this one will actually be a knife block :). Its from the same pile of leftovers as my last box. I decided to use a piece with a huge knot in it as the face so that the bamboo would show through to make it interesting.

Rough cutting to slightly oversized. Small pieces joint better on my little router table.
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Jointing very carefully so as not to destroy the crazy knot.
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Cutting the biscuits. One of the only Ryobi tools i own (terrible router table is the other) and i gotta say its as good as any biscuit joiner ive used.
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Gluing up 4 pairs simultaneously for the sides.
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The freshly sharpened No.5 plane was itchin to go but the panels came out perfectly flat.
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I broke a cardinal rule with this design. I have the box sides running vertically. Why? I dont know...why not! I see alot of universal knife blocks done this way so i thought id try it out... i guess its aesthetics or something. But i thought i should make the joinery good and strong so i ran dados on the front and back to recieve rabets on the sides. Then rabeted the bottom for the base.
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If im being honest i guess i just wanted to try a new type of box joinery, and it made for a nice easy square glue up. Im a little worried about the longevity of this design with the grain orientation but it will be in a controlled environment and its made from scrapwood so no huge loss if it explodes.
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Theres a box in there somewhere i swear :)

Finally got to play with the hand plane. I originally planned on using a flush trim to bring down the oversized front and back panels, but i used full 3/4 stock on this (i dont have a feed planer or bandsaw :-( ) and it just seemed wrong having a router bit sticking out far enough to get the bearing to reference the box side.
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More to come!




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This $5 block plane did a good job evening up the endgrain top and bottom of the box. I probably shouldve sharpened it just a bit better though as i had a small tearout.
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Here she is so far. Next it will get some purpleheart trim top and bottom.
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This time around im going to spray finish with w/b satin poly to avoid the bleeding purpleheart problem i had with the last box. Ive never sprayed clear finish before so its another learning experience. I did some samples today and i gotta say.... 3 hours, 3 coats and its pretty decent. I like those numbers. Might do a 4th on the final project.

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My phone camera is not very complimentary of the finish but it looks pretty good to me and feels flawlessly smooth. Ive always loved the look and feel of an oil finish but Alder seems to do well with poly and laquer type finishes imho.

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Thanks Mohammad, theres just something about handplanes. Any excuse to sharpen em up and start shavin stuff!

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While Im thinking about it... heres the finishing strategy i came up with. Any advice on this is welcomed as im new to spraying and water finishes in general.

Sand to 220.
Raise grain, wait.
Lightly hand sand 320.
Shoot barely diluted light coat, wait.
Lightly hand sand 400.
Shoot diluted and light again, wait.
400 again
Shoot undiluted heavier coat, wait 1 hour or longer if needed.
Touch up nibs and bubbles with 000 synthetic pad.


Seems to work but i dont know if ive developed a real discerning eye for finish yet.


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