Plans get turned on my head

Thursday, I am finished errands and planned to work on the sharpening truck.  As I was walking into the house, my Beloved waylays me and asks how would I go about building a display for knives for the Butchers' Ball.  He has sent me lots of examples but I am not sure I realized that a display was needed for this Sunday.

I took a mesquite log, an old walnut cutting board that was just too heavy to use, and some knife magnets.  I did a lot of sanding, cutting, and gluing.  There was some frustration.  There were questions in my head if I would get anything done in time.  But by this afternoon, I had a display built.

I took the mesquite log and sanded the heck out of it.  All the way up to 2000 grit.  I really wanted it to feel like a knife handle the boyos make since it was going to display their knives.  I then wiped it down with beeswax and mineral oil and sanded at 2500 grit.  The piece of wood turned out lovely.

I took that old walnut cutting board and cut it in half.  Then, I cut it with a 15 degree slope to one edge so the log would lean.  I sanded this a lot too.  But when I put up the two pieces of walnut, I realized that the were much too large for the log.  So I cut them kind of in half and glued all four pieces together.  Today, I sanded the heck out of them.  

I screwed and glued the strange walnut block into the back of the log.  That was frustrating.  I had two of the pieces of walnut split when I tried to screw them in.  Predrilling and a bit more patience made it work.  But that meant more sanding.

To hold the knives to the display, magnets were the choice.  But one old magnet needed to be cut in half.  The other old magnet needed to be shortened.  Again, I cleaned them up because they had been sitting in the shop for two years but then they needed to be cleaned up again after the magnets were cut.  More sanding!  My Beloved screwed them to the mesquite log and I sanded some more.

I wiped the whole display down with beeswax and mineral oil again.  I had done so much extra sanding today that it made sense.  But this is the finished display.  The boyos seem pleased.  Hopefully, it will show off knives well at the Butchers' Ball.  I will be coaching so I will not know.

I actually do enjoy the sanding.  I just wish I had had more time to think this out better.  But in the end, it looks nice.