Neuro has been wanting me to make him a magnetic knife block like I made for myself a few years back, but I didn't have any more interesting lumber. And we couldn't really find a good source in the city. Wanted something with some character. The idea is that I start with something between 12 inches and 24 inches long, at least an honest 2 inches thick, and between 6 and 8 inches wide. Then I plane one face nice and flat, and drill in tiny holes in vertical strips and glue in recessed rare earth magnets to just barely below flush. That way your knives go up flat against the board and you don't see the magnets, and nothing metal touches the blades and scratches them up.
Searching for something else yesterday, I stumbled on a lumber reclaim place that goes into old buildings and pulls out old timber to re-use it. Old factories, barns, docks, piers, whatever. And they close for the season in a few days, so i just up and went by on the way home to see if I could find anything.
In the Maple stack I found this bizarre board almost 6 feet long with good curly figure to the grain, that was NOT maple. I asked about it, and nobody there could ID it, including the owner. Everyone kept asking where I found it, over and over. Closest we could all get was red oak, but red oak almost never gets figure like this. The owner finally said "you know what kind of wood this is? This was a tree growing near where a guy wanted to build a barn, so he cut it down and resawed it and slapped it up on the side of his barn. That's what kind of wood it is." -chuckle- So I bought the whole thing, and chopped it to lengths for 4 knife boards, cutting where I wouldn't interrupt pretty grain patterns. Tossedthem on the bike and went home.
The back is almost better than the front, too. So crazily weathered.
I'll probably just make all 4 at once and then figure out what to do with the other 3.
- sarcastic eye roll
