I was recently gifted a new Shun knife without a sheath. Obviously, I did what any normal person would do – I designed my own custom 3D printed sheath.
The Design
The original design is based on the Shun DM0706 Classic 8-Inch Chef’s Knife. The curvature of the blade is similar between knives, and the hollow portion for the blade was given ample room to accommodate other variations. The opening of the sheath is directional, there is a simple clasping architecture to hold the sharp bits in place. For my print and my knife, this is very tight, which is what I wanted. It takes some muscle to unsheath the blade, making it a bit more child/idiot-safe.
The Pizzazz
I wanted to add a little something extra to the design of my 3D printed sheath, so I decided to add some lettering. As I have more than one Shun knife with very similar handles, I added some lettering to denote that this was a 3D printed sheath for a chef’s knife. So, I created some raised letters on the edge of the sheath which read CHEF in a narrow Impact typeface.
I’m quite happy with the design. The curvature has a nice exotic feel to it, and the lettering adds that extra “something”. I am very happy with how tight the fit is for the blade, as I like to feel secure that the knife won’t be slipping free any time soon. My other Shun knife is responsible for a non-trivial flesh wound, so I am especially concerned for safety with these amazing extra-sharp kitchen razors.
The Part
The little widget below is clickable, and it will let you move the 3D object around to see for yourself how it is designed.
[canvasio3D width=”524″ height=”400″ border=”1″ borderCol=”#F6F6F6″ dropShadow=”0″ backCol=”#000000″ backImg=”…” mouse=”on” rollMode=”off” rollSpeedH=”0″ rollSpeedV=”0″ objPath=”chef_knife_holder” objScale=”.5″ objColor=”#ACACAC” lightSet=”7″ reflection=”on” refVal=”5″ objShadow=”off” floor=”off” floorHeight=”42″ lightRotate=”off” Help=”off”] [/canvasio3D]
Just want to try the parts out for yourself? The .stl file you will want to download is below.