# Knife rack/stand



## ddietz (Mar 7, 2022)

I made a few knife racks lately. One is made from laminated solid oak, another is solid live-edge maple, and the third is solid live-edge cherry from a friend's tree. Two rare-earth magnets are recessed into the surface, below the plane of the wood, and hold any knife with ease. I don't have photos of the back side, but they each have small feet to hold them up. I use Osmo Poly-X Oil for the finish.


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## bsfsu (Mar 10, 2022)

They look great. Do they have a 'foot' or do they stand up with the general thickness of the boards.Can you give us some pic of how you recessed the magnets into the back?


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## ddietz (Mar 10, 2022)

bsfsu said:


> They look great. Do they have a 'foot' or do they stand up with the general thickness of the boards.Can you give us some pic of how you recessed the magnets into the back?


Thank you. With a couple of the knives removed, you can see the 3/8" magnets recessed into the front face so that there is no metal to metal contact. I should have been clearer in my first post that it's two magnets per knife that are holding each knife firmly. You can see the feet and angle of the holder in the other attached photos.


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## bsfsu (Mar 10, 2022)

Nice, I love the grain in the feet too. I have never really considered countersinking the magnets into the front but I think you have swayed me.


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## ddietz (Mar 11, 2022)

bsfsu said:


> Nice, I love the grain in the feet too. I have never really considered countersinking the magnets into the front but I think you have swayed me.


Another option I had initially considered was to embed a regular pattern of these neodymium magnets into a piece of plywood and then glue a sheet of veneer over it all so that the magnets would be hidden. But I had all of this solid wood laying around soooo...
Magnet source in case you're interested.


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## Zyxtmurf (Mar 11, 2022)

Nicely done, did you use the related steel cups for the magnets or epoxy, etc?


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## ddietz (Mar 11, 2022)

Zyxtmurf said:


> Nicely done, did you use the related steel cups for the magnets or epoxy, etc?


Although the steel cups would increase the magnetic force, they aren't needed for this design. That's partly because the angle of the stand and the handle resting on the edge of the wood means that the knives don't slide down further. You could also just use a larger magnet though. a half-inch magnet would be really strong. I suppose the steel cups could be used for installation too, but I'm cheap and didn't want to add to the cost of this  So in my case, they are epoxied into the hole instead. I drilled a 3/8" hole with a forstner bit, and cut a tiny wedge in the perimeter of the hole (shown in the photo) for any excess epoxy to squeeze out, so that I could ensure that the magnet goes to the intended depth below the surface without being impeded by glue.


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## Skylar303 (Mar 12, 2022)

ddietz said:


> Although the steel cups would increase the magnetic force, they aren't needed for this design. That's partly because the angle of the stand and the handle resting on the edge of the wood means that the knives don't slide down further. You could also just use a larger magnet though. a half-inch magnet would be really strong. I suppose the steel cups could be used for installation too, but I'm cheap and didn't want to add to the cost of this  So in my case, they are epoxied into the hole instead. I drilled a 3/8" hole with a forstner bit, and cut a tiny wedge in the perimeter of the hole (shown in the photo) for any excess epoxy to squeeze out, so that I could ensure that the magnet goes to the intended depth below the surface without being impeded by glue.


Looks good. Well was going to type more, but since these changes. Stuff through a phone sucks...


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