However the old standby electric carving knife has been joined by several other electric knives made for specific purposes. The fisherman has long enjoyed the use of the fish filleting knife. As mentioned above the standard electric carving knife has long been used for cutting foam and other soft non food items.

Originally posted here:
Electric Knives Not Just For the Turkey Anymore

Tagged as: carving-knife, cutting-foam, electric, electric-knives, enjoyed-the-use, fish, long-been, long-enjoyed, soft-non, standard, the-fish, the-standard

Heads up: Those reading on Google reader have already seen this post because it accidentally published the other night when I meant to publish the “before” post. So, if you’ve already seen this, sorry. If not, keep reading!

The ugly craiglist bench got a coat of primer and some spray paint before the summer ended last year, but I have to tell you I wasn’t very motivated to work on it after that. The seat that had been on it wasn’t going to work after reupholstering, so Sam needed to cut a new bench top for it. It sat in our entryway, painted but without a seat at all, for the entire winter.

I had bought some fabric that I liked in the remnant section of JoAnn’s for less than $5. That was a bonus – almost made up for the 10 bones I blew on the ugly bench. I just needed to buy some foam for a cushion and Sam needed to cut the plywood board for the seat.

Finally, in February, we got down to business…

Sam had to concoct a way to keep the bench top from slipping right off whenever anyone sat down. Remember, it had been a piano bench with a lift up seat.

We decided on this configuration since it would allow me to easily cover the plywood with fabric and wouldn’t be too difficult for Sam to get a snug fit.

I cut the thickest foam out to size (electric knives are handy for cutting foam, by the way). I then cut a slightly-smaller-all-the-way-around piece from thinner foam and put it on top to give the seat a mounded shape.

Next, I laid the plywood and both pieces of foam over some cotton batting and pulled the batting taut over the foam, folding corners in a mitre, stapling with a staple gun along the underside edges as I went around the perimeter.

I did basically the same thing with the fabric, being careful to arrange the print in a way that would look good after I was done and trying to get decent mitres on the corners. Eh – pretty good. I flipped it over, fit it on the bench, and there you go!

Certainly better than it was.

I still think I spent entirely too much for this project. I had dreams of a $3 bench makeover that would send the blogosphere into a tizzy of thrifty style. Well, maybe not $3, but lower than the $35 that it actually added up to. Still, I like the way it turned out. I like the color and the fabric with the rug. The cushion is nice and high like I wanted. Not perfect, but, overall a good outcome.

I hope that sweet old lady put my ten bucks to good use