Fancy Hardwood Butter Knives

Good morning all - a little project I’ve been poking around at for the past couple of months… making butter knives on the Glowforge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7SoEZd97GQ

I have SVG downloads available as well from the 2 styles I made in the video, if anyone is interested, they can be found in the video description on YouTube in the link above.

I designed the knives in Adobe Illustrator based on some images I found online. Made the shapes, made the handles, and also the holes where the 1/4" dowels would hold them altogether.

Brought them into the app, and then cut them out of different species of 1/8" proofgrade hardwoods. Assembled using Titebond 3 wood glue (for water resistance - these will get wet when being cleaned). Sanded off the varnish on the Proofgrade materials, sanded the blade to a nice bevel fit for a butter knife, and then finished with Tried & True Original (no VOCs, food safe): https://amzn.to/3FxfVRb

Would love to know what the community thinks of this project, and, if it would be worthwhile to make more designs (the first two are free :wink: )





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these turned out beautifully.

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I like them. They look like they would be a pleasure to use.

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Thank you!

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Thanks! They are quite nice, and a nice little break from the ordinary silverware.

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the prefinish on PG is part of why i tend to use non-PG wood. and it might have saved you a lot of time (and some $$) here.

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Yes, definitely in the future, I can make these out of other materials… I picked up a bunch of these, to test making some for the Glowforge catalog (and may still put these in there, just definitely not exclusively now with this post + video), but there is definitely a cost and time savings to getting thinner materials from other suppliers.

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And even more if you have a band saw and re-saw blade. :wink:

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Nice project, but I’d get away from Proofgrade, not just for cost, but for removing the finish. Check out Ocooch hardwoods, they have good prices and excellent hardwood selection.

https://ocoochhardwoods.com/

You might like my sword projects:

https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=%40evansd2%20sword%20in%3Afirst

and especially the bowie knife:

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Whoa, that is GORGEOUS! Thanks for sharing! And also for the link, I’ll definitely check Ocooch out!

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i’ll second ocooch. that’s my general go-to for craft hardwoods. best variety there is and pretty reasonable pricing.

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I love them. Definitely more interesting than my drawer of unused butter knives. Thanks for sharing your project, i never would’ve thought to make something like that.

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Thank you for the kind words :slight_smile:

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Those are really nice.

I was trying to get the last bit of mayo out of the jar once and thinking it would be nice to have a knife that matched the shape of the mayo jar (many products use the same shape) so I made myself one but instead of proofgrade I made it in birdseye maple I bought from these folk…
https://www.gvwp.net/online-store/Large-Grab-Bag-Box-of-Thin-Stock-p56354670

Ocooch used to have packs that maxed out at 1/2" thick but they now max out at one full inch. Almost all are 3" wide and the thicker stuff quickly eats up the volume that one would rather be thinner stuff but at least I could deep engrave anything under 1/2". However, 5/16" beautiful wood and a belt sander can make great knives.

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Awesome, I will have to check them out as well! And brilliant use case… I need to add that to my TODO list!

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Well, if we’re doing this… Check out #1a:

There’s a reference to an “excellent list of wood suppliers” in there.

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These turned out fantastic!!Thanks for sharing!

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Very pretty! I like the thicker blades, both because you see more of the wood pattern - and because I feel like they’re less likely to break!

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Thank you!

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Thank you! I actually had a few break when sanding, 2x cherry, and 1 walnut… and a poplar also ended up a little thin, and would not have made it with any actual use, so I skipped it. But most came out quite well (the magic of video editing) :slight_smile:

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