# How is this knife block constructed?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 29, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686 "2015-12-29T22:48:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/1 "2015-12-29T22:48:55Z")
[Picture here](http://imgur.com/BhGKjRU).
I have a knife block. It’s some mass-produced thing. The block of wood has been constructed by laminating thinner strips of wood running horizontally. Slots have been cut vertically, for the knives to go in.
How are the slots cut? What tool is used to make a long thin hole in a big chunk of wood?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2015, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/2 "2015-12-29T22:53:16Z")
The slots probably haven’t been cut vertically, but horizontally, either when the pieces of timber were all separate prior to lamination, or as they were assembled.
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### Author:  [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/3 "2015-12-29T23:17:58Z")
_What tool is used to make a long thin hole in a big chunk of wood?_
My guess for commercial production would be a CNC mill. At home, you could use a plunge cut router, a jig, and several passes.
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### Author:  [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/4 "2015-12-29T23:26:10Z")
If I’m seeing what I think I am, the center seven layers were glued up and then slots were cut on the top and bottom using something like a table saw. Then the top and bottom “caps” were glued on either end.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/5 "2015-12-29T23:28:09Z")
A mortising machine uses a drill chisel combo to cut square holes. But that looks like it was assembled with gaps between pieces of wood for the thin slots. The larger hole in the upper left might have a notch cut in one or more pieces of wood, hard to tell from the shadows.
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### Author:  [@Richox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richox)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/6 "2015-12-30T00:08:43Z")
I made a block just like that in woodwork class in high school. As other said, you cut the slots in the timber before laminating them together. I’m sure thats how mass productions would occur of such an item.
on a side note, it appears you load your knives into the block upside down. That to keep them from blunting themselves on the wood when putting them away and getting them out?
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### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2015, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/7 "2015-12-30T00:09:42Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#):
>
> If I’m seeing what I think I am, the center seven layers were glued up and then slots were cut on the top and bottom using something like a table saw. Then the top and bottom “caps” were glued on either end.
I like this theory the best. I’ll take another look without the knives in it to see if the top of the top slots all line up on the edge of the top piece, just as the bottom of the bottom slots do.
I initially rejected the idea that it was cut, then assembled, because that seems like a lot of trouble and mess, and the fact that the top of the bottom slots extends just _a little_ above the lamination boundary made that seem very unlikely.
Mostly assembled, then cut, then capped, looks right.
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### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/8 "2015-12-30T00:11:59Z")
[QUOTE=Richox]
on a side note, it appears you load your knives into the block upside down. That to keep them from blunting themselves on the wood when putting them away and getting them out?
[/QUOTE]
Yep.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2015, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/9 "2015-12-30T06:22:32Z")
Smart. But I can see being bolloxed in the grab. And I usually steel 1-2-3 anyway.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-knife-block-constructed/741686/10 "2015-12-30T15:30:43Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Smart. But I can see being bolloxed in the grab. And I usually steel 1-2-3 anyway.
You get used to it.