On Nov 1, 5:03*pm, wrote:
On Oct 31, 9:57*pm, "Steve B" wrote:

I want to make a knife bar out of rare earth magnets to hold my kitchen
knives. *If I hold the surface of the knives off just a tad, can I avoid the
scratching that would be produced with the knives touching metal to metal?
Or will there be enough magnetic attraction if I use thicker magnets to suck
them *up against a oak or plastic substrate that would be sufficient to keep
them in place, and a few thousandths of airspace between?

Or lastly, to apply a thin plastic face onto the magnet so that it never
touches metal to metal?

Steve

This is one of those times when I gotta ask "why"? *There are plenty
of magnetic knife racks in the hardware stores, pick one and be
happy! *By the time you get it all set up, it's going to run you a
hell of a lot more than the purchased unit. *You're reinventing the
wheel. * Ceramic magnets would be the ones to use here, the factory
jobbies sandwich a line of them between steel pole pieces. *You DO
eventually want to remove the knives, after all. *The REMs I use for
woodworking tasks have a nickel plating on them, this eventually gets
worn and the magnet starts to corrode, would be even more likely in a
humid kitchen. *NOT the item for the job.

Stan

Ikea has a good one, cheap. I have them all over my shop to hold
various tools. My kitchen knives, however, live in a drawer that has
an HDPE bar with slots to hold the knoves upright.