In any amateur or professional kitchen, a set of knives is an extremely important tool. No kitchen can function without a set of good quality, sharp knives. From chopping and dicing, to filleting and carving, knives have a whole host of uses. Each of these uses, however, is slightly different, and a different type of knife is required. To provide the correct knife for the task, many chefs and cooks have several knives. Even a small kitchen at home is likely to contain at least three different sized or shaped knives. It is important that knives are kept sharp – blunt knives are extremely dangerous as they fail to cut properly, sliding off food instead of slicing through, and potentially leading to injuries. For this reason, it is important that a suitable knife storage solution is used. Many people many keep knives in a drawer. This has four major problems associated with it.
Firstly, the knives touch each other, get mixed about as you rummage through the drawer looking for things, and blunt each other. Secondly, there are obvious hazards associated with rummaging through a drawer with sharp knives in it! Thirdly, you can’t see which knives you have available. You may waste time searching for a knife that is in the dishwasher or sink, or already on the kitchen counter. Finally, each time you open the drawer, you will need to thoroughly wash your hands to avoid any sort of bacterial contamination from food that could lead to poisoning. So, we’ve established that a drawer is not an optimal storage solution for your set of knives. This basically leaves two alternatives. Firstly you have the traditional knife block. These are often crafted in wood, and the knives slide into dedicated holes on the front. This alleviates many of the problems associated with the drawer – you can see what knives are there, you can easily assess them and they are kept separate, so should remain sharper for longer. A second option is a magnetic knife block.
Magnetic knife blocks are a newer invention that the traditional wooden blocks, but have been around in many forms for several years. A space-saving magnetic design is a simple strip that attaches to the kitchen wall. Knives are then held against the wall and removed as you need them. This is an ideal solution for knife storage – it encompasses all of the good points of a traditional wooden block, but does not take up any space on your kitchen work-surface. This makes a magnetic strip ideal for smaller kitchens where space is an issue. A downside to both wooden blocks and the magnetic strip, is that it is easy for children to remove the knives – which is something that no parent wants to happen. Using a combination of the traditional block, and more modern magnetic technology, it is possible to get a knife block that is useful for the chef, good for the knives, and prevents the knives from ending up in the hands of young children. These blocks work by having a switch that uses electromagnets to very strongly hold the knives into the block (or onto the strip). They will not be able to be removed. To get a knife, you have to turn the electromagnet off. These types of blocks are currently expensive, and only available from a handful of specialist stores. It seems likely that their popularity will increase, and consequently, the prices will decrease, over the coming years. In the mean time, magnetic knife strips are cheap, simple, safe and useful solutions for knife storage, especially in smaller kitchens.
