Flexible knife block oak

A chef's knife, a bread knife, a meat knife, a paring knife and a utility knife - and already most knife blocks reach the limits of their capacity. Not that you necessarily need more knives, but what if you still acquire a filleting knife or the Chinese chef's knife with its significantly larger circumference does not fit into the standardized slots? This oak knife block stands out for its almost unlimited adaptability. Filled with around 1,800 skewers of untreated birch wood, which can be removed individually or refilled depending on the quantity of knives, it adapts flexibly to any knife shape and size and always looks fully stocked. Handcrafted, special emphasis is placed on making the body from a single board so that the grain continues with a perfect fit, even on the edges. The bottom of the knife block is made of sawed cedar (and thus with greater surface area), which neutralizes odors.

A product that leaves Konrad Horsch's workshop is anything but just a piece of wood sawn into shape or turned - it's a piece of wood with a history. For every knife edge that passes through his hands, every rolling pin that he puts the finishing touches on, he can provide the biography: Where was the tree from which the workpiece is made, when was it felled and under what circumstances, which plants, animals or fungi have left traces in the wood, why and in what form? Instead of buying from the timber merchant, he therefore prefers to buy his raw material from where it grew - then, as they say in specialist circles, "negotiations are conducted standing on the trunk". Or he recycles old wood and puts it to a new use, often inspired by its original purpose.

Working only with solid wood is a matter of course for the cabinetmaker from Iserlohn, in a manufactory and with minimal use of machinery. Every object that bears his name is made by him, regardless of whether it is a one-off piece such as large solitaire furniture, art objects for public spaces or products made in small series such as those in the Manufactum range. Even if they are not unique, they are made with the same attention to detail as one-of-a-kind pieces, something Horsch learned during his studies with the well-known cabinetmaker James Krenov in California. Last but not least, the character of the wood alone makes each piece unique. Knotholes, annual rings and grains are simply not uniform - and if they were, the wood would also lose its appeal for Horsch.