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Showing 1 of 3 conversations about:
Kavik
5531
May 10, 2019
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Very excited to see something like this here. Good choice of accessory types to offer 👍
But....this one seems rather expensive for just walnut and 4 individual magnets.
Personally though, I'd rather drill and mount than risk an adhesive randomly giving out years down the road and dropping my best knives to the floor.
Drilling 2 small mounting holes for a hidden cleat doesn't constitute "ruining a wall".....unless you're literally the least handy person I've ever met 🙄
Edit :
For those this would work for though, are these strong enough to grab and hold stainless knives? I know that's a problem with many hidden magnet racks
(Edited)
sharpedge
220
SharpEdge
May 14, 2019
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KavikHi @Kavik,
First of all, thank you for always sharing your thoughts, experiences and reviews whenever our products are featured on Drop. Much appreciated, we like your honest and constructive feedback! 👍
As I explained to the other two Drop members that commented on the expensive price - yes, we agree it's not a cheap magnetic strip. The number one reason is that we haven't reached enough sales with them to get better economies of scale, so since there's a lot of hand work involved (and selection of nicely patterned walnut pieces), the price at this moment cannot be much lower. We hope we'll be able to make it more affordable in the future.
Additionally, the magnet holder has rounded corners for better protection for the knives, and the whole walnut wood is covered with beeswax to make it more antiseptic. Additionally, we wanted to have a clean front side of the wooden block, so it resembles the way nature made walnut wood (there are no holes on the front side of the magnet), this also adds a bit to the overall cost.
Regarding your comment about the "ruining the wall" and rather going with the double sided tape instead. Indeed, two screws give a much better feeling of having the knife holder securely in place, and drilling is not that difficult of a tasks. However, some have tiles or glass on the walls of their kitchen, so drilling into that is more damaging and destructive than drilling into a normal wall. Additionally, many who rent their homes prefer not to drill as they will have to fix it when they leave, it varies from country to country (or landlord to landlord :)). Hence we decided to go with the super strong double sided tape which is easy to secure in place. After many years of offering these knife holders (and owning them ourselves in our homes), we see no issue with the strength of the tape, and we haven't got any negative feedback with that. But yeah, it's difficult to beat a screw :).
Finally - the magnets are super strong (and also relatively expensive). We want knives to be very securely attached to the holder to prevent any accidents to the people around it, or to the knives. We did not cut any corners here, so cheaper stainless steel knives are also fixed securely in place (I own some cheap Ikea knives too and I they dont move around). This is difficult to explain with words, so I made a quick demo video of the magnet I have in my kitchen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a__0xVj2Bp4
Thanks again for your efforts!
Grega
Kavik
5531
May 14, 2019
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sharpedgeLol love the rattle of the cheap knife at the end there. Good demonstration video.
I do like your products that I have, but really it's just coincidental this time that it's yours.
I commented because this product is interesting to me on a personal level, as I've been planning a while now on how to make my own (really, the only thing not figured out yet is what magnet type to go with vs how thin i can leave the face of the wood after routing without worrying about warps or cracks. But, as you said, these types of magnets are expensive! So buying a bunch of different ones for trial and error isn't a great plan on an individual level)
I do agree that this looks nice. The flat finish (no visible mounting holes) is always appreciated.
Knowing now that these are hand finished and pre-waxed helps explain the cost some (things like this really should be highlighted in the ad descriptions!)
And you're right, I wasn't considering people who may have tiled walls, as I never have myself. That's fair.
I also get that there is loss when trying to select only the best pieces from a batch when buying in bulk.
But in the end, from a customer standpoint, it's still not a very expensive/rare/exotic type of wood for the amount of money we'd be shelling out.
By comparison, the one I have in the works is a gorgeous piece of hand picked Ziricote, with lots of figuring and a great mix of heart and sap wood. Knowing what that cost me, and having an idea what the magnets are going to run me, i couldn't make mine for less than the price of this one.
But in just Walnut, with 4 individual magnets instead of a full strip, it would be hard for me to justify that cost even if I wasn't planning a DIY one.
Total side note, but since it came to mind while I was thinking this through: have you tested that spacing with cleavers? (light weight chinese veggie cleavers, i mean. Not massive meat cleavers)
If kept on an end, will you still get full use of the other 3? Or will it block a second magnet?
(edit : I just saw the it's post saying they're double row magnets, so replace anywhere I said 4 with 8 😁)
(Edited)
sharpedge
220
SharpEdge
May 29, 2019
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KavikHi Kavik,
Sorry for my late reply, I totally missed your message.
Yeah, who would've thought that good, strong magnets can be so expensive. It indeed makes it an expensive DIY project, especially if there's a lot of trial and error.
I do agree with your view from the customer's perspective. We like the walnut wood for its nice patterns and availability, but it is indeed not as exotic as some more rare woods. We switched already the handles on the ZDP-189 Bunka Black from a nicer looking rosewood because this wood is getting on the brink of extinction, so we didnt want to contribute to that anymore. We'll discuss it internally to investigate other options for the wood selection of magnetic holders.
Magnets are strong enough to support cleavers too. We'd recommend putting the cleaver on the far right (or left side) and then it shouldn't be a problem space-wise, it won't block the second magnet. Unless you have a really supersized cleaver :)
Best,
Grega
Kavik
5531
May 29, 2019
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sharpedgeNo worries Grega, thanks for the response though 🙂
I hear you there on the rosewoods. It's sad to see those go, they can be so beautiful.
I have a small collection of turning blanks from that family of woods myself, that were bought years ago before I knew it was an issue...I'm happy to have them, and will find a good use for them eventually, but definitely not planning to buy more either (even on my small personal project scale)
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