Some years ago I decided to keep my knives in a drawer rather than on my counter in a knife block. There were a couple of reasons for the switch. One is that I had a small kitchen at the time, and the counter space was more valuable to me than the drawer space.
The problem is that when you have your knives loose in a drawer, the blades are exposed which can be dangerous, and it can result in the blades becoming dull from rubbing against each other.
One solution would be to buy an in-drawer knife organizer, but at the time I was looking for a solution that didn’t require purchasing anything. What I came up with has stuck. I simply made blade protectors and then placed the knives in a plastic drawer organizer
At the time, I had leftover craft foam
from a project I had done with the kids. I decided the foam would work as a guard because it was soft enough that it wouldn’t harm the edge of the knife blades, but thick enough to protect our hands from the blades. I even made a cover for my pizza cutter.
I made the covers by cutting a rectangular piece of foam the length I needed for the knife blade. The width I made a little larger than twice the size of the blade width. I then used a craft knife (the edge of a scissor blade would work) to score a line down the center lengthwise. This allows the foam to fold nicely. The scored side of the foam should be on the outside. After I folded it, I used a stapler to close up the open edges.
These have lasted for years and are showing very little signs of wear and tear. However, since I no longer have any craft foam, I have bought plastic knife guards for new knives I have purchased. The plastic ones slip over the edge of the blade.
How do you store your knives?
A simple solution — good thinking! Those knife blocks take up a lot of counter space. I keep moving mine, hoping for a better location, and end up moving it back to where I work the most so I can reach it quickly. I have a wall rack (for an old set of knives) which is both safe and easy to access, but I have better, newer knives which don’t fit in it, so that’s why I have a knife block. Not much drawer space in my current kitchen.
I used cardboard, cut to length plus two and half times the width of the knife, fold, then staple put in a drawer the smaller ones in a plastic drawer organizer. Bigger knives in space next to it. Works well and they have lasted going on four years.