Knife blocks. Tell me to woman up

[beluga425]

We need new knives as I do loads of cooking and we have a rag tag selection of broken and cheap bendy ones.
I've been on Amazon looking at knives and knife blocks.
I can't get beyond thinking of murder mystery and horror films where a character notices a knife is missing from the knife block.
I am being very silly aren't I?

I don't like knife blocks because if someone has a serious loss of temper it is easy to grab a knife without thinking.
At least if they are out of sight in a drawer you are less likely to grab one as hopefully the thought process needed to open the drawer gives your brain a chance to realise it's not a good idea.

That said, I think I'd be worried about an empty slot!

No, I don't have knives on show for the same reason. I'd be worried they'd be just too handy if someone broke in.

We have a knife block - I've always found it kind of handy, and I'm too clumsy to safely keep them in a drawer anyway.

Although we also have a gap that's been bugging me for years now. We also seem to have a poltergeist/trap layer in the house - twice now we've found one of our knives beteeen sofa cushions, with no-one having any idea of how they got there.

I thought I was the only person who had weird feelings towards knife blocks.

I remember watching one of those true crime programmes about a woman who stabbed her kids to get life insurance money and the reconstruction of her grabbing the knife from the knife block just made me feel ill. I don't know why I watched it anyway, not my type of programme at all.

But actually we have also had a big sharp knife go missing...

YANBU. My dad is a judge in the criminal courts and refuses to have a knife block. Too many cases where it was just too easy for someone to grab a knife...

I had one of those Global knife blocks that ended up in the charity shop too. Awful, enormous thing that was always getting in the way.

Then progressed to a wall mounted magnetic rack which was my favourite. Interestingly, FIL used to always tell me that I had my knives on the rack the wrong way round. .

He was always itching to turn them round. I had the sharp ends pointing toward the ceiling and he maintained that handles should point to the ceiling. I pointed out that I feared accidentally slashing myself if they were oriented that way but to no avail.

Knives are all now in a drawer since kitchen remodel.

Oh and on the subject of Global knives. I had just finished using their huge cook's knife and was using the back of the knife to scrape chopped onions into a pan. I sort of banged the back of the knife on the chopping board and the whole blade sheared off from the handle end.

It was embedded sharp end down in the kitchen floor like a crime scene.

Of course I didn't have the receipt but a quick google showed this a not uncommon occurrence.

I have never ever been worried about my knife block. Apart from the fact that it's a bit minging.

My DM had an excellent magnetic knife sticky thing on her wall. It was most satisfying to be able to just grab a knife off it.

I may replace the block with a magnet. I'm not sure this will help with my safety in the kitchen but I bet it won't be as gross as the block has now become.

My DM always told me to keep knives away from sight in a drawer. They are to easy to grab in a knife block.

Magnetic strip is the way to go, and definitely sharp ends down!

I know - the dishwasher thing is very bad. But I can't help it. I only put them in the top rack

My granny used to say that knives on display are too easy to grab in anger. It's always stayed with me so all knives are in sheaths in a drawer even though dh nor I has ever been angry enough to even contemplate getting a knife.

YANBU. I hate those murderous-looking big knives people keep in blocks. How many do ordinary home cooks ever need or use? I cook virtually everything from scratch, always have done, and I've never needed knives like that - I have a couple of good smaller knives I've had for years, that I keep in a drawer, and they're good for just about everything. OK, I don't bone turkeys but for cutting up raw meat I usually find my good kitchen scissors do the job perfectly well.

Jane - I watched the same programme
Shallishanti
I wouldn't have a knife block. Knives in a drawer. I often have my back door open and I wouldn't like someone wandering in, hearing me then picking up a knife.
I also agree with the anger comments.

I cut myself recently due to our knife block. It is one of those filled with plastic strands so no set spaces. I put a smaller knife in with a wet hand, my hand slipped and I took a chunk out of a finger with the adjacent knife a huge meat chopper thing that was standing proud of the block slightly. They are horrible things!

Magnetic strip, about head height in the wall, over a work top, pointy ends up. That way they are out of the reach of small hands and pretty much no way to accidentally spear yourself. Drawers are bad for properly sharp knives, being all rattled around blunts them quicker and can even chip them!

I used to keep mine in a childproof drawer until ds managed to defeat the child lock and pulled out my big carving knife.

Now my knives are on the wall on magnetic strip (blade pointing up) from Amazon. It's nice and neat and easy to clean and has the added bonus of keeping the knives sharp longer as they're not bouncing about in the drawer.

Our knives are either draining on the draining board or in the knife drawer. Both are pretty good booby traps for a burglar or indeed any unsuspecting person! The clattering would wake the whole house if nothing else. But then no one is allowed in our kitchen to cook apart from us and we know to exercise caution when approaching these two areas of storage. Btw I never even attempted to child proof my kitchen. My DC were only allowed in under close supervision when small - we employed some pretty impenetrable child gates to this purpose.

Isn't the reason to have blades pointing down the weight of the handle? Blade pointing up aren't you worried about a less-used knife gradually slipping down and then clanging off and bouncing on your surfaces while cooking? That would be my fear

I also think its dangerous and midsommer murders like to have knives on display. Mine came with plastic covers for the blades and live in the drawer.

I don't like seeing knives on display. No idea why, it would just bother me.

DH's friend from Uni is a very good chef who worked at Raymond Blanc's Manoir for a long time when he was younger and when we visit there's loads of super-fancy knives on a great big magnet thing across the counter. Terrifies me. But he makes awesome food, so swings and roundabouts.

We have something like this:

knives

I don't like knife blocks!!

I'm a bit scared at how many people seem to think someone might be angry enough to grab a knife without thinking someone incapable of controlling their anger to that extent is always a danger I would have thought. I would be removing them from my life, not the knife block.

I like ceramic knives so a magnetic strip wouldn't do it for me (misses point of thread).

We do have one and I'm not keen on it, especially as the knives we frequently use are never in it.

"My granny used to say that knives on display are too easy to grab in anger".

Who on earth are you living with?