Handmade Magnetic Knife Holder

Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
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Jtchiang9

Active Member
Joined
May 20, 2020
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Location
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Hi all!

Pretty new to this forum, but I've been having fun looking at everything so far! I've just finished up a magnetic knife holder and thought I'd share it here! Sorry for the long post!

Started with a beautiful piece of flamed maple. My wife works as a luthier (and I've dabbled) and saved this from a very high end shop she worked for in LA. This was probably a very old offcut from a very nice cello.



I then used a ryoba to cut make it a block. Then planed it flat using my joining plane.



Once I got it all planed flat and squared off, I took out my trusty ryoba again and cut the block in half. I'll make a second one of these sometime in the future (when I acquire some more knives :cool:)



I then flattened the rough side, I measured out the center line to make the channel to put the magnets in. Used a drill press to get it all started. After testing a bunch with the magnets I bought, I needed about 4.5mm ish thickness to get a good pull from them.



The next part was equally fun and tedious. I wanted to use hand tools for most of this and probably over complicated this. Got to use my Japanese chisel set, knives, mallet, and lots of sweat. Anyhow, it was fun and eventually got the channel the right size and depth.

 


Then the most fun part of this was using my tiny plane to take off the sharp corners.



The plan was to mount a piece of maple to the wall that fits in the channel and attach it to the knife holder with some brass pins. I work on brass instruments so I've got lots of bits and pieces in my parts drawer. I used some braces (brass bar stock) and machined the ends down to thread them.




Then I drilled a carefully measured hole into the holder and the piece that goes into the wall. Used a brass threaded insert into the wall piece and used a knurled knob (from Lee Valley) to hold it all together.

 


Finally, I glued the magnets into the channel using some gel superglue. I used some neodymium bar magnets from Amazon and doubled them up. Used 14 magnets in total for this.



Finished the block with some mineral oil, mounted the piece of maple onto the wall, mounted the holder to the wall, then finally got the knives on the wall!



All in all, this was a fun project that I over complicated for fun. I will probably make my next one a little simpler. But that can wait until I get more knives. Love the lack of knife blocks on the counter now and really enjoy having a nice historical piece of wood in our kitchen. Certainly makes me want to get more knives though. If you've made it this far, thanks for getting through all of my rambling!
 
Wow that looks awesome! I particularly like how the wood grain shows through.
 
Certainly a beautiful piece and I truly appreciate the tedious craftsmanship of using mostly hand tools. Fantastic job and welcome to the forum.
 
Very nice. I'm going to have a go at similar soon, so cheers for the tips!
 
that looks great, as you would expect from someone who dabbles in crafting violins. Loved the few in the background in a couple shots!
 
Hi @Jtchiang9,
I am planning to take on the same project. You wrote that you doubled up the 14 magnets. Do you mean that the have them stacked in two layers of seven? Do you happen to know how strong each magnet was?

Did you find that a single row causes the knifes to pivot? I recently bought a wooden holder over the internet that uses one row of round magnets and it is almost impossible to keep the knifes vertical (so that’s a return). I was thinking to mill two channels using a plunge base router.
 
I had two layers of seven magnets for mine. I bought them off Amazon and they claimed they have 33lb of pulling strength (I think it's weaker than that).

I haven't had any issue with the knives pivoting. And I've been using it daily since I finished this project. I will likely use a plunge router for the second one I make as well. Hope this helps!

VincentBeek said:
Hi @Jtchiang9,
I am planning to take on the same project. You wrote that you doubled up the 14 magnets. Do you mean that the have them stacked in two layers of seven? Do you happen to know how strong each magnet was?

Did you find that a single row causes the knifes to pivot? I recently bought a wooden holder over the internet that uses one row of round magnets and it is almost impossible to keep the knifes vertical (so that’s a return). I was thinking to mill two channels using a plunge base router.
Click to expand...
 
Here's the second one!

1. Was not going to do it by hand again... It was fun once, but ain't got the time for that anymore.... 3d modeled a router template plate and printed that.

IMG_20210521_235250_059.jpg


2: used some oak strips as the template (was going to 3d print that too, but the printer wasn't big enough). Routed out the stop dado, much faster this time... Minutes vs. Hours. Then routed out a larger ledge for the wall piece to fit in.

PXL_20210522_215329207.jpg


3. Epoxied the magnets in, and fit the insert. Drilled a couple holes for the pins and holes to mount the insert to the wall.

PXL_20210523_004251403.jpg


4. Finished it with a mineral oil/beeswax mix. And mounted it!

PXL_20210523_004359069.jpg

PXL_20210523_004351490.jpg



And here it is loaded up (will be putting new incoming knives soon!). And obligatory cat investigation of said knife holder.

PXL_20210523_004950293.jpg
 
Not a lot of skill in this, but full grain leather wrapped IKEA 600mm bars. Protects the knives from violent snaps and looks ok.
 

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ew_ut said:
Did the leather weaken the magnetic pull?
Click to expand...

I love leather covered bars. It does weaken the pull, so I’d typically use it with a strongly magnetic bar, but the leather also grabs the knives more than a bare bar so you don’t need the pull to be as strong. Taking the knives off and on feels so plush. No more “smack!”
 
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ew_ut said:
Did the leather weaken the magnetic pull?
Click to expand...
As Ian says it takes a little bit away but with the pull these bars have it's not an issue. I overlapped in the middle in case my cleaver needs some extra hold but for every knife I've tried it's awesome. Lovely soft catch and release compared to the stainless steel bars
 
Jtchiang9 said:
That looks great! I may have to try a leather option now as well!
Click to expand...
If you do: glue on a magnetic surface so the bars do the work. Use construction adhesive, glues i tried all soaked in to leather too much.
 
ian said:
I love leather covered bars. It does weaken the pull, so I’d typically use it with a strongly magnetic bar, but the leather also grabs the knives more than a bare bar so you don’t need the pull to be as strong. Taking the knives off and on feels so plush. No more “smack!”
Click to expand...
Geigs said:
As Ian says it takes a little bit away but with the pull these bars have it's not an issue. I overlapped in the middle in case my cleaver needs some extra hold but for every knife I've tried it's awesome. Lovely soft catch and release compared to the stainless steel bars
Click to expand...

Good to know. Thank you both!

OP, that maple is beautiful!
 
Jtchiang9 said:
All in all, this was a fun project that I over complicated for fun.
Click to expand...
I like using the Rube Goldberg method to my projects... although too often unplanned.

The "If you build it, they will come!" method seems to have worked, too. At the completion of your prototype, you were lamenting not having enough knives. But you built the second one anyway and the pictures clearly show more knives. Your woodworking is truly magical.

P.S. Does the cat still have all their toes or was this just an ingenious way to get them to trim their own nails?
 
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