Welcome Home...THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR COMMUNITY

iKnife Collector

The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel

BUILDING A DISPLAY FOR 59 KNIVES

I finally got all 3 display boxes built. There are a total of 59 Schrades, all customized by Herman Williams.

The beginning

The frames were made from old maple kitchen cabinet doors that I picked up at a yard sale a few years ago.

The 1/4" glass added a lot of weight, about 3-1/3 pounds per square foot, but allows the displays to be tight enough that only the White Bone Bowie needed a pin under it to keep it from sliding. I used 3/4" pine for the back so that I could drive a finish nail through the fabric for a knife support where needed.

All the boxes have 5 hinges and 5 latches, 3 along the side and top and bottom center. No danger of the glass flexing. The center display weighs 44 pounds empty. 4 little hook and eye gate latches hold each box to the frame.

Blocking around the frame keeps the displays centered.

The entire frame is on hinges and can be laid flat so the boxes can be removed and the knives positioned. I used cabinet hinges and attached them to the back of the dresser with the screws going through a 1" aluminum angle 90 that runs the length of the display.

The support board had to be kept flush to the front of the hinges, so I cut another piece of trim that is removeable to hide the hinges.

Trim added to cover the hinges

3 stacked milk crates are just the right height to support the display when lowered so as not to put undue stress on the hinges or the frame. I use three stacks of three. The entire display weighs well over 100 pounds. 2 eye hooks screwed into the studs in the wall and a couple pieces of 12 ga copper wire, from some romex I had laying around, keep it all upright. The glass and extrusion was donated by my neighbors. Out of pocket cost for items I didn't already have, fabric, batting, hinges, latches, and angle aluminum was under $75. It would have been less but I didn't like the way the knives looked on the first fabric I bought so it had to be replaced.

2 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anthony Moat on February 11, 2016 at 16:03

WOW..........that is an amazing display of beautiful knives. Having a display of this magnitude is one thing, but to have all those knives re-handled by Herman Williams is the ultimate.

Looks like you have been working on this lot for ages Doug. A lot of painstaking hours of work gone into putting that display together.

I am so pleased to have the opportunity to view the fruits of your labors with a quality of knives dear to my heart. Well done my friend.....what now?

Tony.

▶ Reply

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Doug Webber on February 11, 2016 at 18:58

Thanks for the kind words Tony. As for what now...I think I'll sell a few of my duplicates and re-organize my other displays.

Doug

Anthony Moat said:

WOW..........that is an amazing display of beautiful knives. Having a display of this magnitude is one thing, but to have all those knives re-handled by Herman Williams is the ultimate.

Looks like you have been working on this lot for ages Doug. A lot of painstaking hours of work gone into putting that display together.

I am so pleased to have the opportunity to view the fruits of your labors with a quality of knives dear to my heart. Well done my friend.....what now?

Tony.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on February 11, 2016 at 19:12

Doug,

An amazing amout of time and work went into that display and it shows that it was a labor of love! It is simply grand!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bryan W on February 12, 2016 at 20:00

Very nice work. You have some skills there buddy!

▶ Reply

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Jeremy B. Buchanan on February 12, 2016 at 21:22

Great job Doug!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kees ( KC ) Mension on February 18, 2016 at 4:46

well i must say...... I AM IMPRESSED !!

i bed you had some nights without sleep before you got it all figured out..... nice !

▶ Reply

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Doug Webber on February 29, 2016 at 12:19

When I started planning it, I had a heck of time trying to figure it out...over thinking it. Once I got started it wasn't too hard...get a piece of glass to fit the frame, build a lid to fit the glass, build a box to fit the lid. I must have looked at hinges, for lowering the whole thing, for an hour at the hardware store. Finally bought 4, attached them to the display and just built around them. ... Actually, I wish it had been that easy...did quite a few things twice and recut quite a few pieces of wood...ended up with more scrap than I would have liked, but no sleepless nights. Not having to worry about finishing the boxes or perfect joints sure helped. Figuring out how to keep the padding firm enough to hold its shape, keep the knives in place and not pull in from the sides when the lid to closed, well that was tricky....especially considering that half of the box's total depth is in the lid. Had to build it that way for the lid to have enough strength to hold the 1/4" glass, hinges and latches and still keep the glass flush to the frame.