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Traveler's Leather Kitchen Knife Roll

Traveler's Leather Kitchen Knife Roll
Traveler's Leather Kitchen Knife Roll

"X" commissioned me to design a Christmas present for "A" - she wanted to present him with a custom fitted leather knife roll for the favorite kitchen knives he travels with. Most knife rolls on the market do a lousy job of separating and protecting the blades from nicking one another and I wanted something better. Here's what I came up with.

This turned out to be a tricky assignment and it took me forever to come up with a design that satisfied me.

Most commercial knife rolls I've seen are based on the old standard cabinetmaker's chisel roll that tucks the chisel handles side by side into a row of pockets. The problem is that, unlike chisels which have their sharp edges at the end, knifes have their sharp working edges along, well, the edge. Knife blades tucked into a chisel roll can contact one another as the roll is rolled up and if one is interested in keeping ones treasured knives keen this is a huge no-no. Any contact of a sharp knife edge against a hard surface will dull the edge and it takes time, the right tools, and a certain skill level to bring the edge back to a tomato-slicing state.

Traveler's leather kitchen knife roll - open for business
Traveler's leather kitchen knife roll - open for business

This roll was designed for three specific knives and a steel, not the collection of my stuff you see here.

A better knife roll

I wanted something better. I wanted a simple, elegant design that works.

It's been my experience that designing something simple and elegant is never easy. The deceptively simple Shaker oval box is anything but simple. It's actually a complex and sophisticated design which has gone through a long development process. I certainly didn't put any where that much effort into this little project but it did take a while for the concept to evolve. My solution is so obvious in retrospect I'm sure I'm not the first to hit on it - flip every other knife end for end and let the pockets meet in the middle, then, instead of simply rolling it up, first fold the outer "wings" in and then fold again.

Which leads to...

A Christmas 2010 commission from "L" for a similar knife roll in black, fitted to her SO's traveling knife kit:

Traveler's leather kitchen knife roll in black, December 23, 2010
Traveler's leather kitchen knife roll in black, December 23, 2010

Tags: Leatherworking Projects