Norpro 18-Inch Magnetic Knife Tool Bar

Very Nice Magnetic Knife Rack
This is made from an attractive, solid piece of 12” long Maple with two strong magnetic rails that can support even heavy, large knives. While the knives are firmly affixed to the magnets they are easily removed by tipping and twisting. It was easy to attach to the wall with the gold-tone screws that were included but I had to use my own sheet rock anchors as none were included. I held it up to the desired location making sure to leave room top and bottom for the longest knives. I punched a hole with an ice-pick then enlarged it to almost the same size as the anchor with a medium Phillips screwdriver and tapped the anchor into the wall. After attaching the first screw I used a level to position the rack and punched another hole with the ice-pick and added the other anchor. Snug up the screws and it’s done. While I realize that design needs vary this is beautiful, solid and functional. I love the Maple. 100% great!

Knives
Bought to hang on the wall for my knives. Very strong holder.

Very handy device
I’ve long wanted a magnetic bar to hold my cutlery in the kitchen and after investigating all of them, I felt this was the best for me as far as cost, size, and materials.I have no obvious spot for mounting one of these, other than the end of my kitchen cabinets, and I was not anxious to put holes into them, and could not find a magnetic bar that matched the cabinet wood anyway.After a bit of thought and measurements, I found that I could mount this UNDER the bottom of the cabinets. The front of the cabinets has a trim piece that hangs down about 5/8″ further than the bottom of the cabinet. Mounting this strip behind it makes the strip itself invisible but the strip protrudes below the trim piece enough that the magnetic surface was perhaps 1/8″ below the bottom of the lip of the cabinet, allowing me to stick knives to it so that the handles protrude from the bottom edge of the cabinet with the blades concealed under the cabinets. While this deprives you of displaying the knives and seeing instantly which knife is which, it works well for me, as I know all my knives by their handles without needing to see the blade.Mounted under the cabinet, they’re held at a perfect height, easily accessible, yet not in the way of the counter. And I can still easily open the cabinet doors above and access them when I need to, though that’s not often. I purchased an 18″ strip and an additional 12″ which I mounted the same way under an adjacent cabinet. Now all my knives and metal tools are arranged around a corner of my hanging cabinets and within easy reach of my cutting board/work surface.The magnetic strips work like intended, holding knives securely, though I found one exception. They will not hold a couple of Chicago Cutlery knives, one 6″ boning, and one 8″ filet knife securely. I can get them to stick, but barely. I suspect it is the fact that both blades are very narrow and don’t have a lot of surface area and/or the walnut handles may weigh too much. They’re also made of high carbon steel which may not be as magnetic as german forged knives. While I can get them to stay, they are barely attached and too risky that they’d fall. All my other knives stick securely, from grocery store cheapos to a very expensive 6″ Shun Ken Onion chef knife. I also have small and medium size whisks, a crinkle cutting tool, and my dough scraper hung from one of the strips. Keep in mind it will hold other steel utensils as well, as long as it’s not really heavy. Spatulas, scissors, whatever.But it’s unrealistic to expect this to hold ANYTHING. It won’t hold 14″ butcher knives with heavy wooden handles. It won’t hold heavy gardening tools, etc. It’s made for average knives, and for that it works fine. It’s all a matter of how much metal actually is in contact with the magnets and the overall weight of the knives or utensils. The more metal in contact, the heavier item it will hold. And of course, the metal in some knives are more magnetic than others. Wide blades like chef knives hold well. Skinny knives like filet knives with large handles don’t do so well. Steak knives and ordinary types of paring/utility knives work fine.After reading concerns that the steel strips next to the magnetic strip might scratch or mar knife blades, I tried something that was easy and works well. I simply wrapped the strips with pan lining paper with aluminum foil on one side and parchment on the other with the parchment side facing out and secured it to the strip with tape before I mounted them. It has no effect on the strength of the magnet and prevents any possible damage to knives, though I think with a little care there would be little risk of knife damage if you used even a minimal amount of care when taking knives off and putting them back. Plain parchment paper would work too..Unlike other reviewers, I had no problem with mounting these, but I was mounting to solid wood shelving as opposed to dry wall or plaster where you might need to use one of those plastic inserts. The screws provided went right into wood shelving. I used a Phillips head attachment on an electric drill with medium low torque set and the screws went in like a charm and stopped when they were good and tight. Only took a minute. They’re attached as solid as can be. I can’t budge them.I’m very pleased with them in my particular situation. And now I can get rid of knife blocks and free up some precious counter space. And on top of that, the blades are hidden safely away from where they might be damaged or damage something (or someone) and they’re actually easier to get to and easier to select and as long as the knife isn’t too heavy, I can now store long bladed knives which wouldn’t fit in a knife block, such as a bread knife or a long carving knife, as there’s about 1.5 ft of room under the cabinet.

Good design. Good value /$, Good Looks.
I wish I could take a and enter it here, if I can well then I’ll just be lazy and not even try. I bought the 24: AND the 18″ magnetic sticks. I have a descent knife set and really hated reaching into a drawer box for knives, plus that just is not good for the blades.I mounted these and found placing the handle down is the safest. If you place handle up, then when you leverage it to take it off the wall, a heavy blade (large chef, bread or cleaver) may fall off and end up on the floor. Not good if you have dogs that are on chopping block dropping patrol. The other way allows you to securely grab the handle first.The magnets are nice and strong and continuous, not in spots like other models. When you take a blade off, you need to keep in mind surface area that is connected to the magnet. All magnets will do this, and so you need to just be careful. the only other model I saw out there that was much better, and had a cover over the magnets, was many times expensive.The look of these is nice, Another thing to keep in mind is the rails are steel. If you have a lot of moisture in your kitchen oxidation (rust) can form (noticed this from another house I had these in a while back). A little wiping with a scotch pad and maybe some WD-40 or any oil takes care of that.One nice thing about these, they don’t require recharging, recalibrating, or any real maintenance. 🙂

I don’t know what is with all of the negative reviews. Either people don’t know how to install it, or they have knives that aren’t magnetic. I put my high end Japanese blades up on this and they aren’t going anywhere. Don’t let the bad reviews sway you.