Plexi-glass Lettuce Knife

I found a great place for plexi glass scraps and other plastic sheet goods, and brought home a bunch of random pieces. With some of those pieces made a lettuce knife.

Gather Your Materials

You need clamps, CA adhesive (Cyanoacrylate (super glue)), scrap plexi glass wet sand paper belt/disc/drum sander or maybe a dremel, plastic polish, buffing wheel.

*****UPDATE ON GLUEUP****
straight acetone works better for glue up of plexiglass, not to mention MUCH MUCH CHEAPER THAN CA adhesive...
just make sure you clamp it good.

Cut Your Scrap Pieces to Uniform Size and Glue Them Together.

Now, to make things easier, cut all the pieces for the handle to uniform size to make them easier to work with. Draw the outline of the knife onto the plexi glass blade and remember the blade will continue through the entire handle.
Now glue one of the scraps between two other pieces of scap, to make three layer scrap sandwich. Do that twice and let them sit...

Sharpen the Blade

Now its time to sharpen the blade. I did this on a belt sander and its not that tough, just ake sure you keep your bevel straight on each side and grind away untill you have a nice clean edge. Then sand it up to 400 then take it to the sink with some 600 wet sandpaper then i polished it.

Now Glue the Handle Pieces to the Blade

Basically do the same process as the handle glue up, make the blade the middle piece. After its clamped, walk away...

Shape the Handle

Tape off the blade to prevent damaging it during handle shaping.
I shaped the handle on my belt sander to a rough shape then cleaned it up by hand with some 80 grit. After the shape is nice and the way you want it, wet sand the handle all the way thru 600 grit.

Time to Buff and Polish

I use a taper in my lather with a 1/2" mandrel. It works great with most buffing wheels. But use a white jewlers buffing compound until it shines like glass and points out EVERY SINGLE FLAW YOU MISSED while sanding. After that its time to finish polish it with some plastic polish, i used hut crystal coat. But after that it is all done and ready to make salad!
I doubt it will hold up in a dishwasher. And i dont now how long the edge will last but time will tell..
thanks for looking!