02-09-2016, 11:01 AM
Just completed turning 3sets of handles for Cheese Knives and thought I would share them and the experience with you. I saw the Cheese Knife set in a Rockler catalogue and thought it would be a nice gift for my daughter’s birthday plus Valentine’s gifts. The wood is Burmese Rosewood which I recently discovered. Love its natural reddish brown color. It turns and finishes well.
The Knifes are screwed into a thread insert you insert into the handle. This allows the knifes to be put in the dishwasher for squeaky clean folks. The treaded inserts in the kits were poor quality, i.e., 3 of the 12 cracked at the top while I was screwing them into the base of the handles so I had to order more from Amazon which were much stronger and had finer outside threads. If you choose to make this set, drill test holes in a scrap for the inserts. I found the 3’8” recommended hole size (for hardwood) too small. Ended up using a 13/32” bit.
To align the figure/face with the blade of a knife ( so it presents it prettyest face), leave the threaded insert just a little proud. You can then file the top of the insert away until you get that just right look.
To finish, I applied 3 coats of General Finish High Performance using a foam brush. That finish is my go-to finish for most of my projects. It’s self-leveling with no streaks and no bubbles and is fast drying – water based.
It dawned on me that I needed a presentation box. There was no time to make them so I went in search of at a Craft Store. Found an unfished “container”, for lack of a better word, with scalloped edges. Couldn’t beat the $2.50 price. Had no qualms about putting my brand on the bottom of the containers after all the time and effort spent sanding, conditioning, staining, finishing and lining them. Hookin lot of work.
Thanks for looking. Dave
The Knifes are screwed into a thread insert you insert into the handle. This allows the knifes to be put in the dishwasher for squeaky clean folks. The treaded inserts in the kits were poor quality, i.e., 3 of the 12 cracked at the top while I was screwing them into the base of the handles so I had to order more from Amazon which were much stronger and had finer outside threads. If you choose to make this set, drill test holes in a scrap for the inserts. I found the 3’8” recommended hole size (for hardwood) too small. Ended up using a 13/32” bit.
To align the figure/face with the blade of a knife ( so it presents it prettyest face), leave the threaded insert just a little proud. You can then file the top of the insert away until you get that just right look.
To finish, I applied 3 coats of General Finish High Performance using a foam brush. That finish is my go-to finish for most of my projects. It’s self-leveling with no streaks and no bubbles and is fast drying – water based.
It dawned on me that I needed a presentation box. There was no time to make them so I went in search of at a Craft Store. Found an unfished “container”, for lack of a better word, with scalloped edges. Couldn’t beat the $2.50 price. Had no qualms about putting my brand on the bottom of the containers after all the time and effort spent sanding, conditioning, staining, finishing and lining them. Hookin lot of work.
Thanks for looking. Dave
