Knife Display Case

[Chet]

That came out looking real good. I am looking forward to seeing that filled with his collection.

[wtnhighlander]

Final, in-situ shots. Apologies for the lighting, his room is painted Navy Blue. Weird stuff happens when you let teens make their own decisions. 

Lessons learned:

1. Turning a log into boards with a hand saw is not fun.

2. Log cants don't dry evenly.

So, there is some movement to deal with.

3. I don't care much for how this maple takes stain, chemical coloration may have looked better.

4. Trying to maintain a 4-corner, 4 edge grain match wasn't worth the effort for such a subtle grain pattern. The match meant there was zero extra material to allow for mistakes, so the door frame miters are less than stellar.

5. The pegs need notches just a hair deeper to hold the knife blades securely. It doesn't take much to knock these off.

6. Cody thinks it is awesome, anyway.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the design, less so the execution. The slat wall with DT pegs is as versatile as commercial peg board, but much nicer looking.

Thanks all, for folloing along and offering advice as the opportunity arose!

 

[treeslayer]

Looks awesome Ross this was a great ride and I’m sure Cody loves having it in his room where he can see it every day and remind him of the nice work him and his dad did, well done !

[Chet]

I came out looking pretty nice and if Cody is happy thats probably all that matters now.

 

 

[Tom King]

quote:  "6. Cody thinks it is awesome, anyway."

It looks very professional, but no. 6 is most important!

[Mark J]

Clever design with a great and determined execution.

[Chestnut]

Excellent work, despite the headaches i think it came out great and agree as Cody likes it that's what matters.

That dovetail slat wall looks awesome I really need to remember that for future use. I think the technique could be used for a lot of different applications.

[pkinneb]

Turned out great!!

[Coop]

That looks mighty fine Ross! Glad Cody likes it! 

[brandonakerman]

On 1/10/2022 at 1:44 AM, wtnhighlander said:

I am posting this, not so much to share the experience, as to collect advice as I go.

My son asked for a case to display his collection of pocket knives. We decided on a wall mount, with a hinged, glass-front door. Acrylic, probably, not window glass. Anyway, I'm sort of winging it beyond those basic parameters.

We're experimenting with how to hold the knives. First test is a standardized block of MDF, with a cut-out to hold each knife. To begin, I made a field-expedient scribing tool to help trace the outline.

A carpenter pencil, shaved to the lead on one edge, and set into a groove at the end of a squared block puts the line directly along the edge of the knife profile.

The outline traced, and max dimensions marked for the block. I had a boning knife do the job because they are better than a knife like fillet. Boning worked perfectly for me after I read about it on Smokekitchen

Several minutesof scrollsaw work later, and we have a holder.

Even vertical, the knife won't fall out. Mostly because I cut it tight around the handle, but I also put a 2 degree slope in the cut, so gravity would drive the knife inward. Frankly, I don't think that made any difference.

He wants to display 24 knives, and wall space dictates 2 colums of 12. At 8.75" long and 2.25" tall for each block, that makes the overall size of the case around 20" wide by 28" tall. Final depth TBD  but will include an integral hanging cleat. Could be as thin as 2", but likely will be a little deeper.

Ayone have thoughts on this approach?

 

Let your son know that he ha great taste in pocket knives :)