Newish to woodworking would appreciate some advice.
I am making an in drawer knife holder and my drawers are pretty shallow, so I want the slots for the knifes to go completely through the wood. I unfortunately do not know the best way or even if those cuts can be made. I am not opposed to making it more than one piece, but I would like to avoid that if possible. Please see drawings below.
One more wrinkle I am isolating in place so if you know of a hand tool solution bonus points. If not I will make it when I can get back to the space
Some thoughts. It is //probably// possible to do this in one piece as drawn.
The best way I can think of to do that is CNC: rough most of the piece with a 1/4” flat end mill, finish the cove with a ball nose, finish the angle with a changer bit, and lastly cut the slots with a 1/8” bit.
It is also probably possible to do this mostly with a router table, and in doing so you’re going to get very good at using one and learning the intricacies of using one.
If you’re willing to make some sacrifices in the as drawn design, it could possibly be made easier. For example, if you were willing to have a curve cut under the cove, you could probably use the table saw to make the knife cuts.
In my opinion, if you can bear it, this would be much easier to do if you were willing to split the pieces apart. This could even be used to introduce a design element like dovetails or alternating colors of wood.
As for doing this with hand tools… it’s again doable, depending on what tools and the amount of patience you have. Cove hand planes exist for example. Much of this could be rough cut with a jig saw and then planed / sanded into dimension.
side note: As a knife/ cooking enthusiast, I would recommend against having your knives slamming against the drawer bottom as You’ll quickly dull them. If you definitely want to go with in-drawer storage, consider placing a thin layer of cork or a 1/4” layer of edge grain soft maple on the bottom of the knife holder in order to protect the knife edges.
I was going to say basically the same thing except I think the slots could also be done on the scroll saw to dodge the safety issues of a router in tight spaces like that.
Might be able to flip the part upside down and use a track saw with travel limit stops clamped to the track.
You need a board same thickness and roughly twice as long as your knife board for the track to clamp to. Pull saw to rear stop, plunge, push forward a few inches to front stop, retract saw. Reposition the track for the next cut.
I have debated the knifes rattling around. I have a wicked edge sharpener so they get touched up at least once a month, but I plan to play it by ear. I will add cork like you suggest if necessary.
When you say “curve cut under the cove”, do you mean making the cove narrower/thinner and then cutting under it using the table saw?
Essentially you would use the table saw to cut the slots, but you would need to account for the blade edge on the forward aspect, under the cove. I should note this is not a beginner move on the table saw, and is dangerous in that you’re not completing a cut or using a riving knife.
Essentially you would plunge the blade into the wood while holding the wood securely down… kickback Or burning would be more prone to happen in this maneuver. Not something I would Generally recommend.
It would be much safer to make each of the rails individually and then glue them in place. Or use the cnc. Or jig saw, chisels, sand paper.
One other approach to mull over, just to screw with you some more…consider making N identical pieces with a band saw, and then laminating together. This would allow for the concave profile part somewhat more straightforwardly as well. (by the way, does that part have to be semi-circular? and if so, what is radius?)
Accounting for the knife slot is a bit of a challenge with this method but not a significant one. One thing that recommends this approach, aesthetically speaking, is that you can cut the various N pieces out of differing types of wood, or even acrylics. Most significant down side is it probably has to all be cleaned up with various sanding tools (belt, spindle, orbital, and hand)
I made a knife holder for my kitchen drawer with my table saw.
Below is a picture of it:
It is made from three pieces to fit into a 16-1/2" x 4-1/2" space. Below is a diagram of the center piece which is cut from a 2"x6"… The other two pieces are cut from 1/2" plywood and hold the center piece in place.
This is my drawing for the second knife drawer insert. The plan is to use this one for my steak and paring knifes in a second drawer. I do not have room enough for both in one drawer.
Thanks for the info on making it from three pieces.
@mblatz, I completely agree. Here’s my suggestion: Start by shaping the profile in 1/4" MDF and use it as a template for rough cutting the pieces on the bandsaw, then finishing them up with a flush trim bit on the router table. This should minimize the cleanup with the various sanders at the end. The wood used to make the profile pieces can be of two thicknesses: One as thick as the knife blade gaps are wide, and one for the solid pieces on either side of the knife blade gaps.
Next, cut a dowel hole on either end of each profile piece using a purpose built jig to make sure the holes are cut in exactly the same place on each. This would allow you to run dowels all the way through the profiles to align them perfectly at glue up. (Test fit, but don’t glue them up yet. Leave the two dowels a bit oversized.)
To create the gaps for the knife blades, cut the middle out of the thinner profile pieces, again using a purpose built jig. Finally, glue the profiles and alignment dowels together and when dry, trim the dowels flush. Sand and finish.
If you want this project to look like it was created from one piece of wood, rip the profile pieces out of 8/4 or 12/4 stock as wide as your knife drawer and keep track of the sequence as you cut them. The results won’t be perfect, but it will get you pretty close.
I could do it this way, but I have watched several YouTube videos that do it this way, and I am not a big fan of the aesthetic for myself. I think if I am going to piece it together I would rather just make it out of two or three pieces. ie a cove piece and a base piece. That maybe the best solution since doing it in one piece seems problematic.
That is awesome. I am jealous of you daughter what a great opportunity. Knowing what it cost me to do a pretty plain renovation on my kitchen, I cannot imagine how much Henry Built costs.
If you don’t mind making the cove piece a separate part, the project gets a lot easier. If the engineering squares in your drawing are 1", then it looks like your organizer is 10-3/4" wide x 15" long (minus the cove piece). I would create it in two layers: A lower part that runs the full 15" and and an upper layer that runs from ~7" - 15".
I would cut the upper layer long–about 8.5" or 9" and glue it to one end of the bottom layer. Then take a scrap about 3"-4" long and attach it to the bottom layer with double-sided carpet tape, butted up against the part you glued down.
Flip your assembly over and cut the deep v-groove on the table saw through both layers at whatever angle pleases you. When finished, you should be able to pry off the piece you taped down. Cut the slots on the table saw and you’re done, except for the cove curiosity.
Collin, what did you use for cabinets on your kitchen remodel? I did a bathroom remodel a few years ago and used Ikea Kitchen cabinets for the vanity. They had much nicer drawer slides than their bathroom stuff. The Faces came from Italy, the Cabinet was made in Ohio, and the drawer hardware was Blum. I was surprised nothing came from china. I bought a solid surface material for the counter top called Samsung Staron, It was pretty easy to glue up and the joints are invisible. Like Corian but I couldn’t buy Corian.
Henrybuilt also sells cabinets on their SpaceTheory.com website. Kinda pondering that route for our other two bathrooms and kitchen but I have no idea how much they cost yet so that could change.
Seeing your inspiration, I can confidently say that those are made from at least 2, and probably 3 separate pieces of wood. You can see that the grain on the cove runs perpendicular to the grain on the rest, indicating that they are two separate pieces.
I would also guess that the area below the cove is two separate pieces from the same block, divided at v groove. This makes this piece significantly easier to manufacture. Picture of what I mean attached.
By separating out The middle piece, cutting the blade grooves becomes trivial: full length, partial depth cuts with the table saw at specified intervals. (Think really skinny dados).
You can actually see in the second picture that the cove is a separate movable piece, and In the first picture, the blade holder is a distinct piece of wood with different coloration from the bottom board.
