Knives

It's about time that my kinfe block got a new life.  The block is a large chunk of dark wood that eats up space.  But as I'm not yet a huge fan of the magnetic strips attached to the walls, I'm thinking that I've got to find a way to liven this baby up rather than replacing it with a modern storage form.

The knives themselves were hand me downs from my parents, and have been going strong since before I was born.  Now the wear and tear is getting pretty obvious.  The handles have lost their luster.  The protective poly coating is basically gone.  And on the knives that get really frequent use the stain is disappearing.

Below is the close up, they're lacking shimmer and shine.  These poor knives appear tired.  

 

So right now I'm in the process of sanding the handles down.   I'm going to have to look up what's the best way to re-liven them.  My instincts say re-stain and coat with polyurethane.  But I may just be treating them like cabinets, and am unsure of the food safety level of polyurethane. Whatever I use I want it to be food safe and water proof, as knives will find themselves in and around food and water.