Although the way to store knives on magnetic rack should seem like a no-brainer, it may actually create a lot of confusion to some people.
In a wall-mounted knife rack, do the knives go blade pointing up or down? At first it looks like it doesn’t really matter, but does it? There are only so many ways to do this so it’s not rocket science but this is the best setup we found.
How a perfect knife rack should look like?
We tried many wall-mounted non magnetic and magnetic racks. Those made out of steel, wooden ones (rustic, modern, classic) short to longer ones (we were able to find up to 50cm which is ~19”), but each time we found some flaws. Not being able to find the ideal one, we decided to design and build a prototype by professionals from Japan and Europe. We didn’t save on materials. We asked for only the best wood and steel to be used. We felt like if we can spend a few hundreds on a knife alone, we shouldn’t be cutting corners on storage accessories. We wanted something more premium to be sure, that the knives are safely mount and that the rack will last for years to come. We love the simplistic design and built. It passed the tests in many different situations.
Learn more about kitchen organisation: Keep It Minimalistic: Maximise Kitchen Space By Organising Items
How to place the knives on the magnetic rack?
It’s an individual choice but if you ask our team at Oishya Home – we prefer keep the knives handle at the bottom (pointy end up the top). Reason being, when you reach up there is no danger of rubbing your hand over an edge or into the point. If we grab the second knife on the right, for instance, we are still safe on either side as long as we go for the handle, there is no blade exposed near the fingers.
We stick our knives on the rack about midway up the blade, and not so close to the handle to balance it nicely. You want more weight of the knife below the rack, as this prevents the knife from trying to spin from the weight of the knife.
Most of our team is right handed, so for safety she has all her blade edges pointing to the left of the rack. Most of us put the longest blade on the left working back in size towards the right. It minimises the amount of sharp edge exposed on the knife to the left of the one we may want to grab.
As knives tend to hang down lower the longer they are so, in theory, you should hit the top of the handle of the knife you are after before you get near the edge of the blade on the knife to the right.
If you have your rack quite low then we’d suggest to point down and handle up. Remember, safety first. Never reach for a knife without looking where your hand is going, you are not on a pro chef production line, take your time and enjoy your cooking and your tools. A cook with a badly cut hand can’t cook so be careful out there, people.
Don'ts of magnetic knife racks
Finally, don’t overload the rack with too many knives, you want room between them for both your sake and the knives. Too crowded and you run the risk of blunting or chipping the edges by snapping one knife over the heel of another. Try to avoid buying metal mounted racks as metal on metal is always bad which is why we only stock wooden knife racks and stands, they protect the edge better and look much neater. Buy another rack if you have that many or retire your old knives, it’s always better than damaging them.
The alternative: magnetic kitchen stand
Sometimes you don’t want to drill holes in the wall (e.g. if you’re renting a place and you’re worried the walls are soft as a butter) or you simply prefer your knives at lower level. In such cases the ideal alternative is a kitchen stand which you can just unpack and put on the kitchen worktop.
There you go. We hope we helped you with your choice. If you have any questions, please shout us at info@oishya.com – always happy to help!
