Thread: Cutlery handles for Christmas 2021

I realised that I needed a few Christmas presents (as well as the usual Bank of Dad $$ for family of course) so I purchased some cutlery fittings. I didn't have any idea what shapes to make nor how long/what diameter. However, I read on these forums that Crows Ash (Flindersia australis) is good for handles and I bought a trailer load of that from the forums member who once called himself Mapleman, so I have plenty. After some experimentation with some very plain figured material I decided that, for the larger items like the bread knife, cake slice and cheese knife a diameter of approximately 30 mm plus or minus 3 mm feels comfortable in the hand. I made most of them about 150 mm long, though one of these felt better at about 125 mm.

Cutlery handles for Christmas 2021.jpg Four of the handles. Two are ripple-figure Crows Ash and two a striped figure. I never make any two the same, variety is the spice of life (and I've no pretensions to be an excellent production turner, I just like playing around).

I still have some smaller items to make - like butter knives and steak knives (though I'm not sure why I bought the latter) but am planning to make them 12 to 15 mm diameter.

The cheese knife fitting was the easiest. a deep hole with a drill for the longer part of the cylindrical shaft then a shorter drilled hole for the larger portion of the shaft. The other fittings are fiddly because they need a fairly deep hole drilled but then most of the length is flat steel. I read about various suggestions in the forums for them but found the simplest method to use a very small () shaped diamond file I have.

I used Epox-E-Glue (Boatcraft Pacific) to glue them in place.

All are finished on the lathe using Shellawax Glow, then EEE Ultrashine over the top.

David