Quick and Easy Knife Rest
Did you know champagne corks make great knife rests? Did you know you needed knife rests? This article tells you why you need them and how to make them yourself.
Corks to the rescue - again
Greetings and salutations, Simple-Fixes readers. Today's DIY uses one of my favorite materials, corks--only, in this case, champagne corks. Let's dive right in and see how the humble cork can once again solve a nagging problem with ease.
The problem
Okay, let's say your household invests in fancy placemats or tablecloths to bring a bit more class to the dining experience. On their inaugural outing, someone uses their knife and lays it on the placemat or tablecloth; take your pick. Immediate disaster as whatever was on the knife now transfers to the pristine table covers. Reactions to this will vary by household. I'll pause a few moments to allow your imagination to fill in the blanks.
Back? Excellent. Now it's time to investigate solutions to this problem.
Solution 1: Place your knife on your plate. Foolproof, right? Not so fast, Kemosabe; what if your flatware and dishes exhibit a mutual repulsion to each other? In other words, the knife immediately slides off the plate. That’d be weird! That's my dilemma, and it stains the table linens every time.
Solution 2: Adopt a Chinese diet and only use chopsticks. Hummm, tasty and healthy, but chopsticks can fall on your mats too.
Solution 3: Invest in knife rests! Yes, this works every time it's tried. But what type of knife rest should you buy?
· Waterford Crystal makes some lovely rests suitable for fine dining occasions but not something you'll want for baby back ribs night.
· Casual, daily use rests are available in nearly every material possible and a panoply of designs like this adorable Owl set from Amazon. And, yes, they are adorable.
The champagne cork alternative
But why spend any money on commercially produced knife rests when you can press champagne corks into that role? Especially if you or others in your home enjoy the occasional glass of bubbly.
Here are the benefits of using champagne corks as knife rests.
- You harvest them in the course of enjoying a glass or two of champagne.
- They do not break.
- If you lose one, the set isn't broken; add another cork.
- Don't have enough for unexpected dinner guests? Make more on the spot.
So, how do you make champagne cork knife rests? Read on!
Turn a champagne cork into a pair of knife rests
The procedure for converting champagne corks into knife rests is simplicity itself.
Tools and materials needed
- Champagne corks - NOT the white plastic kind; that's gauche!
- Knife or saw to cut the corks
- Cutting surface
Step-by-step
- Determine how many knife rests you need, divide by two and gather that many champagne corks.
- Place your corks on your cutting surface and cut them in half lengthwise.
- Use and enjoy cleaner table linens.
Overcoming a cork shortage
But, what do you do if you don't have enough, or any, champagne corks? This wouldn't be much of a simple fixes blog if there weren't an easy answer for this conundrum. While I give an in-depth process for cork sourcing (say that three times fast) in another post, I'll give you the quick and dirty version here.
- Buy some champagne and enjoy it (responsibly) with family and friends. I consider this harvesting corks in the wild.
- Ask family and friends for corks.
- Visit a champagne winery near you and ask for corks from their tastings. It would help if you partook in the tasting process to establish the necessary rapport with the person in charge of corks. Just waltzing in and asking for freebie corks, even if they throw them out, lacks style and civility. And probably won't get you any corks.
- In a pinch, use wine corks. I prefer champagne corks because they have that inviting depression in the middle and are a bit taller than wine corks, but make use of what you have!
That's a wrap for this post! Functional, affordable, rustic knife rests are just a couple of corks away.