Product recommendation

[pecunium]

The three places people get cut, with kitchen cutlery, tend to be the drawer, the sink, the dishwasher.

All are preventable.

The sink and the dishwasher are easy (don't put knives in them). The drawer is a little harder. A block works, as do drawer inserts. It may be one doesn't have a block, and the aesthetics, or space, of the kitchen preclude. Drawer blocks exist, but older kitchens may have drawers too small to support them (they tend to need about 4" internal clearance).

Which leaves knife guards. They come in a few styles. Sleeves, plastic lockets (I don't know how else to describe them,, they have clasps, and completely enclose the blade), and edge protectors. I've been a fan of the last. Sleeves slip, and that can wear at the edge. The lockets are great for some knives, so-so for others, and absolutely impossible for some (e.g. my gokujo [which is an interesting knife in that it's not a traditional japanese style of prep knife. Honestly, it's not ideal for the function it's designed for. Since most of us aren't going to use it for the design function {breaking down quarters and sides of beef/pork} it's not a problem])

So I've been a big advocate of the edge protector. I have half a dozen by Messermeister. They are a sleeve, which pinches onto the blade, and leaves the edge in a hard fold of plastic. The only downside is they do rub on the flat, and leave a little bit of wear.

Which is a nuisance if you have a really pretty knife (or have a carbon steel one you have "passivated" [with an acid wash... I like lemon juice; and yes I know that's not the proper term, but it's not really blued either]) that you don't want marks on.

Enter my recent discovery.

Magnetic blade guards from Bisbell.

They come in three widths, can be cut down (in length) to fit the knife in question (they say to use scissors, don't. A sharp knife, and a steady press is the way to go) and are a flexible magnet, in a vinyl cover. They fold over the knife, stick to it, and I don't think I am ever again going to open my knife bag to discover that the cover has slipped off one of the knives.

I also no longer worry about distracting scars on the knives. Which means, when I buy the 1731 I want, I can put it in the bag without worry.

Comments

[texaslawchick.livejournal.com]

We have two of two of these which are magnets on a block of wood that is drilled to the wall. The knives also have the benefit of being readily accessible and visible.

My parents have this thing, which I'm envious of.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

I shall have to look into those.

And your timing is impeccable. I took my husband to the emergency room on Saturday due to a knife accident. Granted, a good knife holder wouldn't have helped in this case, as he was using my best veggie knife to pry up stuck brownies, but still...

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Oooh, and an excellent addition to the camping/travel food prep kit. Nice.

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Thanks! I bought Paul 3 Wusthof(sp?) knives for Christmas and I've been worried not only about our knife drawer with all the random knives just tossed into it, but about reaching into the drawer and getting cut, or the knives dulling from knocking into one another.

I wish I could have a magnetic knife strip holder for our kitchen, but the folks who built it tiled the walls and since we rent we can't drill holes through the tile.

[izzydesan.livejournal.com]

I love the edge protectors. I have them on all my knives. I don't really have room for them in a drawer, and I don't care for knife blocks. Instead I keep them in an elongated mangowood bowl which I aquired at Target and which decorates my counter. The knives are easily accessible, the bowl is beautiful (and holds even the longest knives), and it fits in a little extra bit of counterspace that was too small to use for anything else.

The magnetic protector looked interesting. May need to try that if I get anymore knives.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

If I had Good Knives (*) I'd want to go for a purpose-made (by me) fitted chest -- probably not velvet-lined/padded, but made of some interestingly-grained reasonably-hard wood (black walnut heartwood, perhaps), finished only with (most likely) mineral oil.

(*) I don't have anything approaching good -- the best (for balance, shape, and edge-retention) are a c. 70-year-old ordinary home-kitchen butcher-knife, and a small Chinese-style cleaver from a 99-cent store.