Monday, April 22, 2013

Floating bait board / knife holder

A couple weeks ago I lost my Scotty bait board and nice bait knife in a kayak disaster. I would love to buy another, but I only have so much money to replace my lost gear. Until I replace more important gear, a fancy bait board and knife is not a great priority.

But, I still needed a bait board.

So, I decided to make one. Instead of just a plain old cutting board, I decided to put together a supper awesome one. The one I made floats and securely holds a full sized chefs knife.

I spent $2 for two cheap cutting boards and $3 for an old chefs knife at a local bait shop. The rest of the stuff I needed, I already had.


I started by tracing the outline of the knife blade on one of the cutting boards. Then I took my plunge router and routed out a trough for the blade the same thickness as the knife blade.


Once the second cutting board is placed over the trough I routed, the knife slides right in. Unfortunately, it was routed a hair to deep, so I had to add a couple of pieces of duct tape into the trough to "grip" the knife blade and to keep it from sliding out.


I connected the two boards with simple stainless steel screws at each corner. Pilot holes need to be drilled as cutting boards can be surprisingly brittle. Don't try to glue them together. The plastic used in cutting boards is made to resist everything, including glue.


Looks good. Now we just need to make it float.


A pool noodle cut down the center and zip tied to the handle works great!


It is a little larger and heavier than I would have liked, but serves its purpose beautifully.

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