Fun Neander Christmas gift idea

[Mike Allen1010]

I never know what to get people for the holidays – at my age most people already have all the stuff they need.


This year I made these silverware trays – you know for keeping knives, forks, spoons etc. in a kitchen drawer. This is meant to replace the ugly plastic tray most people have (including us). It's a fun project that allows you to use up some of the scraps you been hoarding, doesn't take very long and gives you a chance to practice the fun hand tool skills like dovetails, planning stock to the appropriate thickness and making stopped dadoes to capture the edges of the internal dividers.


Here are four I made: mahogany, cherry, Poplar and white oak. Still need to add the spar varnish to help protect them from any water that may remain on the utensils. FWIW, a Neander gift idea for your consideration.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4686/24194993107_21b008fc54_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/CS2Evz)1 (https://flic.kr/p/CS2Evz) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4587/39025189292_048b0a9de2_h.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/22swiaf)2 (https://flic.kr/p/22swiaf) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4516/24194992997_e7c482bb5b_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/CS2EtF)3 (https://flic.kr/p/CS2EtF) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr




My wife also found these empty wine boxes that have the vineyard logo and she thinks I should somehow convert them to wine and cheese trays – what you think?


https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4555/25189653118_47ae533d41_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/EnVyh7)4 (https://flic.kr/p/EnVyh7) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


All the best, Mike

[Jim Koepke]

My wife also found these empty wine boxes that have the vineyard logo and she thinks I should somehow convert them to wine and cheese trays – what you think?

Place a frame around it to make a serving tray?

BTW, the utensil trays look great.

jtk

[Christopher Charles]

Great idea! I’ve been meaning to replace ours for years!

If your wife says the trays are a good idea, well... :)

[Phil Mueller]

Very nice, Mike! Ummm, Pirate Chest and four silverware trays? You make Santa’s elves look like slackers :D

[Shawn Pixley]

Beautiful work.

Were the wine boxes full when you got them? Opus 1 is very expensive (and delicious) wine.

[Karl Andersson]

for the wine boxes, you could make a cheese & crackers serving kit ;
*screw a solid slab of hardwood (hard maple, anything non-toxic) to the underside of the lid
*Make a cheese knife and spreader (use either kits for turners or hand-carved from dogwood, boxwood or other very hard wood) and have little holders for them (leather holsters, rings, etc) on the underside of the lid next to the cutting board.
*Loosely line the box with linen or other fabric (maybe held in with Velcro) and it's used to hold crackers, bread, etc. when served.
* the cutting board can keep the lid generally in place, or you could use a couple of small box latch closures (the type with a wire that pulls tight through cam action)
OK, well that's all I could think of
Karl

[Mike Allen1010]

Very nice, Mike! Ummm, Pirate Chest and four silverware trays? You make Santa’s elves look like slackers :D



Phil,


I'm not nearly as productive as it might seem. The chest as been finished for a while, just took me longer than usual to post it to SMC – I'm not very good with the IT stuff.


The silverware trays really are a fun project that doesn't take very long and as a bonus let you use up some of the wood scraps that I'm sure we all hoard. Goodness knows I am completely guilty – I keep way too many tiny scraps of wood in these plastic buckets from the auto parts store. Really Mke - little, 2" blocks, what am I gonna do with those?


Cheers, Mike

[Mike Allen1010]

Beautiful work.

Were the wine boxes full when you got them? Opus 1 is very expensive (and delicious) wine.

Shawn,


It's great to hear from you – I hope you're feeling healthy and hearty these days!


These boxes were absolutely not filled with actual wine bottles when Sherrie got them somewhere. Far too rich for my blood, and I'm really much more a beer/bourbon guy anyway.


Best, Mike

[Mike Allen1010]

Thanks JK and Karl for the suggestions about how to turn the boxes into serving trays – when I get some time all explore your ideas.


Cheers, Mike

[Joe A Faulkner]

Thanks for the post Mike. Last year, I helped my youngest Son's make 4 of these for Christmas gifts to their older siblings. I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately and have been trying to come up with something we could crank out. Your flatware organizers might be just the ticket.

[Matt Lau]

Beautiful, and good ideas!

Hey Joe, I'm thinking of making some pen holders out of some African Blackwood I have sitting around.
Drill hole. Countersink. Cut to a cube. Plane to shape. Bevel. Done.

[Barney Markunas]

Shawn is right, your wife has good taste in wine...

Much better that those crates become something useful than ending up in a dumpster or being broken up for kindling. Back when my son was in Cub Scouts I raided the local liquor store's scrap pile for wooden crates that the boys used to build tool boxes. The price was right and so was the wood thickness. The kids could decide if it was printing inside or on the show side. I seem to recall most of them opting for printing on the outside.