I am planning on making a large, magnetic block knife holder. How
would I go about getting a nice piece of steel, say an 1/8 inch thick
and cut in the shape that I need, that would be magnetic so as to hold
the knives?

Any ideas?

Thx,
dave

Perhaps rare earth magnets stratecially placed behind your piece of steel?

"pharmdave" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am planning on making a large, magnetic block knife holder. How
would I go about getting a nice piece of steel, say an 1/8 inch thick
and cut in the shape that I need, that would be magnetic so as to hold
the knives?

Any ideas?

Thx,
dave

"pharmdave" wrote in message
I am planning on making a large, magnetic block knife holder. How
would I go about getting a nice piece of steel, say an 1/8 inch thick
and cut in the shape that I need, that would be magnetic so as to hold
the knives?

Any ideas?

Yeah, save some effort and just use some rare earth magnets. Drill some
holes most of the way through in the back of your wood, glue a rare earth
magnet in each hole, place your knives in front.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...363,42348&ap=1

On 19 Jan 2005 11:56:02 -0800, "pharmdave"
wrote:

I am planning on making a large, magnetic block knife holder.

Easiest thing is to buy a cheap, but ugly, magnetic knife rack and
re-use the innards.

The usual design is two steel strips, edge on to the knives, and
either a number of small magnets, or a magnetic strip between them.

Good magnetic racks have "pole pieces", some magnetic but unmagnetised
iron that "connects" both poles of the magnet to the knife, and has
them spaced a short distance apart. If you use a powerful rare-earth
magnet in a drilled hole, you only expose one pole of the magnet. This
gives you clamping that's too strong when close up and falls off
immediately with distance. They're good clamps like that,but nasty for
storage - they "snatch" when you get close..

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
gives you clamping that's too strong when close up and falls off
immediately with distance. They're good clamps like that,but nasty for
storage - they "snatch" when you get close..

grin In other words, don't hold your knives by the blade when you're
placing them against your knife rack.

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 15:09:40 -0500, "Upscale"
wrote:

"pharmdave" wrote in message
I am planning on making a large, magnetic block knife holder. How
would I go about getting a nice piece of steel, say an 1/8 inch thick
and cut in the shape that I need, that would be magnetic so as to hold
the knives?

Any ideas?

Yeah, save some effort and just use some rare earth magnets. Drill some
holes most of the way through in the back of your wood, glue a rare earth
magnet in each hole, place your knives in front.

I'd go along with the rare earth magnets. But if he still wants the
appearance, he should rout out for the steel, then rout holes behind
that [from the front] for the magnets. The glued-in steel [or drill
and screw] will hold the knives anywhere along the length.

In article ,
Andy Dingley wrote:

The commercial magnic racks I have seen do not look very satisfactory.
If you do not cleanly grab the one knife you want you run the risk of
dislodging three or four at once. I don't want my hand in the midst of
all those falling knives.

I believe one could do a decent job with rare earth magnets but one
needs a good demonstration model before building a finished product.

The old method of slots works very well. I have mounted a set of
horizontal slots just under the cupboard so the knives do not take any
counter space. They are firmly supported and easy to grab.

Dick

On 19 Jan 2005 11:56:02 -0800, "pharmdave"
wrote:

I am planning on making a large, magnetic block knife holder.

Easiest thing is to buy a cheap, but ugly, magnetic knife rack and
re-use the innards.

The usual design is two steel strips, edge on to the knives, and
either a number of small magnets, or a magnetic strip between them.

Good magnetic racks have "pole pieces", some magnetic but unmagnetised
iron that "connects" both poles of the magnet to the knife, and has
them spaced a short distance apart. If you use a powerful rare-earth
magnet in a drilled hole, you only expose one pole of the magnet. This
gives you clamping that's too strong when close up and falls off
immediately with distance. They're good clamps like that,but nasty for
storage - they "snatch" when you get close..

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 20:56:00 -0800, Richard Cline
wrote:

In article ,
Andy Dingley wrote:

The commercial magnic racks I have seen do not look very satisfactory.
If you do not cleanly grab the one knife you want you run the risk of
dislodging three or four at once. I don't want my hand in the midst of
all those falling knives.

I believe one could do a decent job with rare earth magnets but one
needs a good demonstration model before building a finished product.

The old method of slots works very well. I have mounted a set of
horizontal slots just under the cupboard so the knives do not take any
counter space. They are firmly supported and easy to grab.

Dick

and can be even better with a few RE magnets... gotta love those lil
suckers!



mac

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