I just purchased a new wall-mounted mag strip. Before hanging it, I tested it by putting a few heavy-ish/long-ish knives on it; they held securely, but it was easy to spin them in place by gently nudging the knife's top or bottom. Furthermore, knives exhibit a tendency to spin toward a horizontal position if they aren't attached nearly vertically. Is this normal for a mag strip? Obviously, overly-strong magnets are bad because they require too much effort to remove the knife, but I'm worried that the magnets in the strip which I received are too far on the opposite side of the spectrum.
Mag strip strength?
- Thread starter Pirendeus
- Start date
Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:
Mag-blok?
I have a cheapo mag-strip from IKEA or something. Small blades try to shift to horizontal unless blocked and they all rotate easily. But in 5 years, none have ever fallen off or even come close to doing so. It does the job.
So yours sounds fine to me, but if you paid a small fortune for it perhaps it should work better. Maybe somebody else with a more expensive one can chip in.
So yours sounds fine to me, but if you paid a small fortune for it perhaps it should work better. Maybe somebody else with a more expensive one can chip in.
I made one mag strip and I was experiencing the same issue. The problem was that I installed only one row of magnets not two. The knives were constantly spinning and this really annoyed me.
At the end I had enough and made another one. In this one I carved 2 grooves for the magnets and now it is OK.
At the end I had enough and made another one. In this one I carved 2 grooves for the magnets and now it is OK.
No, it was hand-crafted, and more than double the cost of Mag-blok strips. At that price, I was expecting a well-crafted product that would perfectly hold each knife securely, instead of acting like an autonomous guillotine. Are my expectations out of line?
milkbaby
Well-Known Doofus
I have a wooden magnetic rack that has round magnets placed in the backside at spaced intervals. A knife will stick anywhere on the block because the magnets are very strong, but if a knife is not centered mostly on the magnet, it sometimes can be tilted if pushed at the top or bottom, though the friction between the knife and the wood generally keeps everything in place. I think krx927 is right about having two rows of magnets.
I have 1" magnets in a 2x23 strip and it still can happen if the blades are placed on it crooked, especially if placed at the ends because thee is no magnetic field on the other side of the knife. When I designed mine this was an oversight and if I were to do again I'd do two separate strips offset by a bit.
Not sure of your design, but try hanging so the more of the weight of the knife is lower lower than the magnets, although the magnetic field will still have an influence. IME, a full tang it is is more affected because there is more metal below the magnets, and if placed near the center there is a lot of blade above the magnets. If crooked, the handle/tang will be attracted up, and the blade will be attracted down.
Not sure of your design, but try hanging so the more of the weight of the knife is lower lower than the magnets, although the magnetic field will still have an influence. IME, a full tang it is is more affected because there is more metal below the magnets, and if placed near the center there is a lot of blade above the magnets. If crooked, the handle/tang will be attracted up, and the blade will be attracted down.
