What’s the best way to store knives?

Consumers spend billions on home organization every year. It might be part of their New Year’s resolution to get more organized, or spurred by an organizing expert like Marie Kondo, but whatever the reason, people buy a lot of stuff just to store their stuff. Kitchens are no exception to this rule, as companies like The Home Edit offer countless ways to keep you from losing track of your ingredients and tools. One of the trickier categories for kitchen storage is cutlery, especially knives. Their potential for injury and for becoming dulled complicates their storage options – you can’t just toss them into a utensil crock or drawer willy-nilly.

For most people, a knife block is the default method of storage, but a knife block takes up a lot of real estate, is a breeding ground for germs, and if your knives are not properly sized for the block it can actually make them dull. Drawer organizers that feature slots for knives are better, but they take up a lot of valuable drawer space and they are not practical if you have many large knives as most only accommodate smaller sizes. One of the most practical ways to store knives is a magnetic knife holder like the one pictured above. Serious Eats recently conducted a testing of several different magnetic knife holders to determine which style works best.

Wooden versions received higher marks than ones that had exposed metal, for one obvious reason – that metal could damage a knife if it was carelessly thrown onto the holder – and for several less obvious reasons. The testers found that every time a knife was placed on a metal holder, it would clang and shift slightly. Wooden holders, on the other hand, were quieter and “the texture of the wood created slight friction, inhibiting the knife from sliding around,” according to Serious Eats. As a bonus, wooden knife holders are more attractive. I’ve been happy with my wall-mounted holder, which I purchased years ago from Michael Ruhlman’s website when he (briefly) sold kitchen tools. The knives I use most are within arm’s reach when I’m cooking, and they don’t take up any counter space.