Knife block made of walnut wood

Our customer wanted an original piece in his kitchen and built this unique knife block out of walnut wood.
Knife blocks differ greatly in design, shape and texture, including this model here.

Project: Make your own knife block from walnut wood

For my knife holder I used the following materials:

• 1 piece of walnut wood with bark
• 4 x Neodymium flat bar 100 x 13 x 5 mm with hole and countersink - 30 kg
• 11 x Disc magnet Ø 15.0 x 15.0 mm N45 nickel - holds 14.4 kg
• 5 x Metal disc Ø 30 galvanized with double-sided adhesive tape
• 1 x 5 minutes epoxy adhesive Fast-curing 2-component adhesive
• 1 x Mixing nozzle with bayonet lock for EPK-25 / AMK-24 / EMK-24

I worked with the following tools:

• Cordless screwdriver
• Sandpaper
• Forstner drill bits 16 mm and 20 mm
• Multifunctional tool with milling head and router attachment
• Chisel
• Japanese saw

Processing of the wood and magnets:

• First, I prepared the wood: sawed, sanded, and treated it with linseed oil varnish.
• Using the 20 mm Forstner bit, I pre-drilled the slots for the flat strips and then used the router to cut them down to a remaining thickness of 3 mm.
  Since the approximately 2-3 mm long centering mandrel of the Forstner bit made it too difficult to break through to the surface, I opted for the router option. Alternatively, I could perhaps sand down the centering mandrel.
• After testing the flat strips, I noticed that small knives were held in place, but the larger knives slipped due to the heavier handles.
  Medium-sized knives also "slipped" a bit and had difficulty staying vertical (depending on the handle's center of gravity).
• So, I decided to add a disc magnet to each knife above the flat strip. For this, I drilled holes for the 15.0 x 15.0 mm N45 nickel disc magnet – which holds 14.4 kg – with a 16 mm Forstner bit down to a remaining thickness of 3 mm (this worked well because the smaller bit had a shorter centering mandrel).
• To be able to attach the knife holder to the wall without a base, I embedded five magnets, each 1 cm deep, into the wood, leaving a 5 mm overhang.
  This created a nice "floating" effect and made the whole thing stand out slightly from the wall.
• Wood screws weren't necessary. I used epoxy resin adhesive to glue the magnets in place, as it's better suited for magnets than regular glue.
  It's also suitable for visually appealing bonding and bonds a wide variety of materials, such as metal, ferrite, marble, ceramic, stone, wood, concrete, and plastic.
  It is important to ensure that all magnets are glued at the same time, as the glue hardens quickly in the mixing nozzle (after 5 minutes it is too hard).

Note on the magnets and glue:

Important: Because I didn't consider that the disc magnets underneath the flat strips were too close to each other, the first, very strong disc magnet with a holding force of 14.4 kg pushed out the adjacent flat strip.
This may also have been due to the polarity being unfavorable. The 15 mm disc magnets have such a strong pull that I was more concerned with making sure they weren't attracting anything else.
You might want to test it beforehand and mark the surfaces that should face upwards with a permanent marker.
(Because I had already dipped the magnet in the adhesive, I stuck to the polarity so that the sticky side wouldn't be on the outside.)

Fortunately, this was the first disc magnet I used, so I held the two adversaries in place by hand for 5 minutes until the adhesive dried.

I had ordered a few replacement mixing nozzles for the adhesive, which I highly recommend to everyone!

After a short break, I was able to glue in the remaining disc magnets using a new mixing nozzle.
Basically, a pea-sized amount of glue is enough to apply to the bottom of the hole.
(You can see from the pictures that I added a little too much glue to a few holes, but that wasn't a problem.)

Attachment of the knife block:

• To attach the knife block to the tiles, I placed the self-adhesive metal disks on the fastening magnets and cleaned the wall clean, grease-free and dry.
  Conveniently, the tile joint was perfectly horizontal and so you could align the knife holder with it. The foils were peeled off all adhesive surfaces and the knife holder together with the metal disks were pressed against the wall.
• Then this was pushed to the side to loosen the holding magnets.
  I pressed the metal discs firmly on again.
• The 3 cm metal disks provided enough adhesive surface.
  This enabled me to make small corrections to the position of the block afterwards.
• At the lower edge of the wood, I made sure that the metal discs did not protrude.
  The advantage is that the holding magnets do not have to sit in the middle of the metal discs in order to have a good hold.

In summary, I can say that fewer holding magnets of this caliber would have been sufficient.
If the cordless screwdriver is used, please note the required depth and that you only drill vertically.
A drill press would most likely simplify this process.
The magnets adhere perfectly.
Nothing wobbles and it is really tight!

An alternative would have been to use only the 15 x 15mm disc magnets without the additional use of the flat bars.
A small knife is reliably held on the back of the knife.

The variant with the flat strips was the better decision for me. The knives can be repositioned at any time.
Even smaller vegetable or office knives can simply be clamped in between.

The new eye-catcher in the kitchen