Walnut Bases for 11.5x2.5 DMT Plates and Felt Strops

I have been working on a number of accessories that I would like to complement my knives with, and one of them is a walnut base for DMT Plate that can also double as a strop. DMT plate flat surface makes it an ideal for attaching a felt strop (with magnetic backing) to it. So in short, you get two products in one - a sharpening plate that doesn't need soaking or flattening and a strop.

WIP to show what it takes to make a base from a raw lumber to a finished product.

The process is as following:
- Flattening Wood on a Joiner (in the pictures it's maple)
- Resawing into planks
- Squaring planks
- Cutting strips into base blanks
- Marking blanks
- Chamfering edges
- Rabbeting plate to recess feet
- Chamfering bottom (for a comfortable hand grip)
- Removing wood to recess the DMT plate
- Hand-sanding
- Sealing wood with Tru-Oil (several applications with steel wool sanding in-between)
- Finish with hand-applied Poly or spray Lacquer


Felt Strops
- Join the surface of magnetic backing and felt with contact cement
- Cut to size

Flattening Wood on a Joiner

Resawing into planks

Squaring planks

 Cutting strips into base blanks

 Marking blanks

 Chamfering edges

 Chamfering bottom (for a comfortable hand grip)

 Removing wood to recess the DMT plate

Sealing wood with Tru-Oil (several applications with steel wool sanding in-between)

 Finished Product

Learning my ropes in the blogosphere

I am new to blogging, but hopefully a learning curve is less steep as one for making knives. I guess the main reason for starting a blog would to communicate more effectively - post updates, WIPs (Work-In-Progress), information on new steels, and other topics related to kitchen knife making and use. Of course, my favorite subject after knives, food, won't be overlooked. There will be articles, videos, pictures.

So to start, I am posting pictures of a set I finished last week - a walnut end-grain board, a 12" hightly figured maple magnetic knife holder and 180mm petty chef knife with koa, blackwood, and mokume handle.
I started making accessories recently, and after some tweaking of existing designs, I came up with a following design for a magnetic strip.  One shortcoming of the common magnetic knife holders is the separating a knife from the block. My design addresses this issue.