DIY knife stand: manufacturing methods

If at home, while preparing food, the hostess does not immediately think about organizing kitchen utensils, including knives, then, for example, in a restaurant or hospital kitchen, where frequent cooking is put on a rapid flow, serving a huge contingent every day, every little thing matters. To work more efficiently and faster, chefs keep knives, electrical appliances, cutting boards and other utensils in an easily accessible order - as required by their work regulations.

Working in shifts, not every chef will like it if the previous employee, whom he just changed, left the same knives in one of the drawers of the table, without placing them in a special stand or in a pencil case in a prominent and well-known place. And when it is not possible to purchase such a stand overnight, it makes sense to take care of its independent production.

As bearing capacity any ready-made or home-made container, box will do. The latter is made of plywood and / or slats. As a ready-made container, a water filter jug ​​is often used, in which the insert that held the replaceable filter cassette is broken.

In addition to the carrying capacity, it must contain reliable filler. The height of the container and the level of the filler are such that the knife inserted with the tip down sinks into the filler along the handle, without reaching the bottom of this container with the tip of the blade.

A jelly-like material is unsuitable as a filler - it will stain a freshly washed knife put in storage. Loose is also not an ideal solution: you hardly want to leave the knives, for example, in a saucepan with buckwheat or sugar.

The best solution is sticks or pegs, the length of which is significantly greater than or equal to the height of the container: when folded together and wedged in in an amount that leaves little room, they form an almost perfect landing area for a dozen knives. If only one of several knives is currently inserted, it must not fall into this free space with the handle.

When all the knives are inserted into this makeshift stand, sticks and pegs are pressed against each other and against the blades of the knives tight enough to prevent the latter from falling to the side.

In addition to sticks, chopped in large quantities from fresh firewood or planed from thin branches of any tree, bamboo ones are also used, sold in any hardware store or shop for needlewomen. Instead of sticks, for example, aluminum wire (you can pull the "cores" out of the old cable), cut into segments of the same length, blunt at the ends, is acceptable, for example.

If there are no sticks, strips of thick cardboard, old magazines rolled into a roll, candles, bristles of plastic brushes and even books can be used as fillers. The latter can either fit into a ready-made container (or a box made for them independently, for example, calculated for several volumes from a collection), or act as a supporting structure (hardcover covers are material for cells, and pages are filler).

Purchase at least two ready-made plastic brushes and a PVC pipe with a plug up to 20 cm in diameter. You will also need epoxy glue. Step by step, the entire manufacturing process is as follows.

1. Saw off the butt end at one end of the pipe.
2. Pull the bristles out of the brushes and join them together.
3. Pour the glue into the plug so that it spreads evenly over the bottom of the plug by at least one centimeter, and insert the collected bristles into the plug. The glue will saturate the ends and, after hardening, securely hold the bristles in the plug. If hot melt glue is used instead of epoxy, then the bristle bundles are glued one by one or in small groups. The bristles should fit as tightly as possible.
4. Once cured, push the glued bristles through the piece of pipe. Connect the structure together by closing the plug. For stability, you can glue a piece of plywood with a square shape larger than the diameter of the plug itself to the plug.

The simplest option is any wooden block in width or diameter of at least 20 cm.After sawing wood (both for firewood and industrial - for construction needs), a piece of wood that is very even on all sides with a height equal to the length of the blade of the longest knife from your set. In it, with the help of long drills, a jigsaw or other improvised tools, slot-like holes are made, in each of which any of the knives will fit.

If you are dealing with thin slats or plywood, then an elongated piece of plywood or a piece of strip at least 1.5-2 meters long is enough to make a stable stand that will not fall, even when the largest and heaviest knife (usually a carcass cleaver) is inserted close to the edge.

If your kitchen design is so advanced and perfect that quick ways to make a stand will only ruin the whole look, use an option that is not inferior to industrial products in terms of accuracy or quality. To make the stand you will need:

• a board equal in length and width to the future stand;
• rail or plywood;
• glue or screws.

Do the following:

• mark the board in accordance with the location of the horizontal and vertical pieces of the rail;
• glue thin (slightly thicker than the blade of the largest knife) pieces of the rail to the board (there are several of them) in accordance with the markings, parallel to the knives being inserted;
• then glue three longitudinal (perpendicular to the previous) segments - two at the edges and one in the middle.

The second version of the hanging stand is much simpler. In any rail or bar, a groove is cut into which small neodymium magnets are inserted, fixed with glue. The structure is hung on a wall or, for example, on the side of a kitchen cabinet. It is enough to attach the knives with the blades to the places of the magnets - they will securely hold onto them. This magnetic holder is the best solution for knives, which do not need to be wiped off due to the huge number of repetitive actions when the food is cooked on a wide flow.

Another "advanced" option for the arbitrary arrangement of knives in the stand, giving the kitchen its own unique element of luxury.

The step-by-step manufacturing process is as follows:

• cut the lath into dozens of pieces equal in length, but 1-2 cm longer than the largest knife from your set;
• draw the base of a square or rectangular piece of board or plywood along the cross-section of the rail;
• glue the edging of long and narrow pieces of plywood around the perimeter - this will create a reinforcing edge on all sides;
• place the rail segments vertically and fasten them with nails, after applying a layer of glue to their ends and to the seats of these segments;
• let the whole structure "grab".

There are more than a dozen ideas for self-manufacturing a knife stand, which is not inferior to an industrial one. Many "home-made" people make good money on this, because the handwork of a master who is well versed in the fashion of modern decor is more valuable than conveyor production of parts or automatic assembly of a product into a design that is boring to a consumer, which is replicated in millions of pieces a year.

For information on how to make a stand for knives with your own hands, see the next video.