The Dart

Last year I gave my sister Jacqui a spatula made from a plank of cherry wood that I had found in a reclamation yard; this butter knife is made from the same plank. 

The knife is designed to rest perfectly flat on either side and to stand on the belly of the blade and handle tip or along the spine where its slight curve allows it to rest on the fulcrum half-way along the spine. When resting on its spine the knife is balanced so that it can spin on the fulcrum.

I wanted the handle to transition gradually from being in the same plane as the blade to being at 90 degrees to it with the handle still feeling comfortable in the hand. The gentle curvature of the end of the handle helps with this. I made a prototype from pine and the final item is largely the same but about 20mm longer which gives the knife a little more elegance.

I find the 90 degree transition in the handle fascinating; most cutlery knives have a handle in the same plane as the blade. The idea almost suggests that a twist has occurred  though clearly that's not the case.

The name of the knife comes from the shape of the knife as seen from above when the knife is resting on its belly and handle end. The spine forms a dart-like shape that reminds me of a paper dart or perhaps the Concord.

Cherry is a smooth-grained, reddish-brown hardwood renowned among woodworkers, furniture builders and musical instrument makers for its colour and ageing process. It starts out a light pink and darkens over time to a rich reddish hue with a lustrous patina. Cherry is an extremely strong, durable, stable hardwood with a fine, uniform grain that allowed me to create the blade as thin as I did. After the knife was completed, I soaked it in mineral oil for several days as the wood seemed quite dry.

The knife is not designed for anything harder than butter and after use it should be washed gently by hand (not in a dish­wash­er!). After it is dry it should be lightly oiled with a food grade mineral oil, aka liquid paraffin or cutting board oil. Avoid using vegetable oils as they may go rancid. For similar reasons, I suspect butter should not be allowed to soak into the wood.

Because this was a gift for a special birthday, I wanted to make a decent presentation box. After several prototypes, I ended up with the one below. It's made from high-density black card glued with wood glue (I find that PVA craft glue is often too thin and can cause swelling or buckling in card). The box is lined with a double-sided wrapping paper that uses two William Morris designs on a textured paper. Two cross-pieces support the knife and the left -hand support has an angled cut-out and thin elastic to hold the knife in place. The elastic is threaded through two pairs of holes at the top and bottom of the insert to try and spread the load on the elastic and to keep the joins out of sight. The right-hand support has a deep notch that holds the handle in a friction grip. Fitting  into the space between the two cross-pieces is an envelope that holds the blurb about the knife.

Specifications:

Depth to belly: 25mm

Depth at end: 3mm

Length: 189mm

Spine width at back: 13mm

Spine width at front: 0.3mm

January 2025