Knife Storage, Revisited, Part 2: Wall-Mounted Knife Racks

If you don’t have room on your countertop for a knife block, a wall-mounted rack might be a good option. And there are so many cool ones to choose from! (Of course, there are purely utilitarian ones, too. You don’t need my help to find those.)

This one comes from Norden Designs, which makes knife racks in various lengths and various woods. Like most wall-mounted racks, it uses strong embedded magnets to hold the knives in place.

Unsurprisingly, some of the companies that make nice knife blocks also make nice knife racks. These come from Arbol Cuisine.

And this one comes from Make Me Something Special. At 10 inches tall, it’s substantially taller than most wall-mounted knife racks, thus keeping the entire knife blade on the rack.

While most magnetic knife blocks hide the magnets, the knife grabbers from Peg and Awl, sold by Food52, make the magnets part of the design. The knife grabbers are all made from reclaimed wood.

Yet another magnetic option is what Zernin Handcrafted calls Magic Circles.

The stainless steel Magneto knife rack from Eva Solo isn’t new, but I haven’t yet written about here. It’s a very different design which keeps the knife blades pointed inward; that might be better from a safety perspective. It also fits more knives into a given amount of space. 2Modern is a US-based source for this rack.

Not all wall-mounted knife racks use magnets; Cattails Woodwork makes ones with a long slot for inserting the knives. These knife racks come in three different woods, and each wood is available in two lengths.

Shop owner Brenda Watts writes about the woods she uses in her products: “Some pieces are crafted using fine cabinet woods such as black walnut, cherry and mahogany, from sustainable sources and managed plantations, many pieces are crafted from local woods that are from trees that may have fallen during storms or ones that have been cut for various reasons. I also love to recycle wood from old furniture, houses, old wooden barns.”

Stuermer Studios uses the same slotted design but uses a “translucent FDA-food approved resin slab” rather than wood; it’s available in three colors. The company notes that these racks are intended for knives “that have a flat transition of the handle to the blade.”

Finally, this knife rack from DMS-Design, which does use magnets, has individual slots and can be hung horizontally or vertically — so it can fit into spots too narrow for other knife racks.