Kitchen Knife Box

As a woodworker, or at least one that pretends to be one, I have for a longtime wanted to build a kitchen knife block holder.  I've had two issues with them though.  They seem to use good wood that might be used elsewhere and the slots would appear to limit the number of knives and the sizes.  The last time we were visiting John and Ashley at Lampyridae Vineyards, Maureen saw that Ashley had a different kind of knife holder.  It was a box that was filled with bamboo skewers.  The knife blades fit between the skewers and gave a seemingly infinite number of knife combinations for storing.

We came home and eventually started designing our own knife box. We found some leftover plywood  and figured we would build the first from it and refine the next few and use solid wood for the box.  The plywood ended up being easy to use and pleasant looking as well.

We started with the skewers and measured their length and the longest knife blade's length.  We then used those numbers to figure the height of the box.  And in typical fashion for me, I calculated the box sizes based upon the size of the plywood piece I had available. Less frugal woodworkers would just buy more wood I suppose.

The sizes were finalized, the plywood was cut to size, and I used a tablesaw to cut dadoes on the bottom piece so the bottom would be recessed into the sides.  I also cut the bottom a bit smaller than the outside dimension of the glued together sides.  I hope to create an overhang by the sides.  I know there is a name for this overhang, but I can't remember it just now.

I was pleasantly surprised at the plies of the plywood showing up in contrasting colors as well as they did.  Maureen did a great job with the polyurethane and paint as always.  We have many colors in our house and this just adds to them.

The final job was to cut the skewers down in length some as they seemed just seemed a bit tall in the box. We than slipped and stacked them into the box.  We lost count, but figure there are about 16 bags of skewers in the box.  Maureen bought out the stock at Winco, twice, before we filled the box.  It is a handy knife holder, and another fun project from the 'Zoo.