You know how when you’re on land and get dragged into Leroy Merlin for the 42nd time? You know how when the skipper needs some stainless for a tiny boat job and then spends hours inspecting all the screws, nuts and bolts leaving you swearing to never, ever again get dragged into a hardware store? Well that’s when I start wandering down aisles, wondering what all the rubber and PVC trims are for. Or at least what I could use them for.

Before you ask, “pouf, what’s this got to do with cooking?” and click away to chop up some nuts for the vegan brownies you’re bringing to the next pot-luck, hang up your sword and listen up.

Yep, here comes another ingenious solution from TALATA.

We all know magnets on a boat are to be avoided right? Magnetic influences can affect compasses and cause deviation in headings. Yet still, almost all the galley’s I’ve seen have a magnetic knife block or magnetic holder to store all the impressive blades.

The eternal problem of how to store your quality knives

My boat friend Alexandra, a professional chef, mentioned that her biggest horror is storing knives in a drawer. I tend to show my humble side when faced with the confidence of a pro, so I definitely wasn’t about to admit this is exactly what we do on TALATA.

We brought along our collection of Global and other Japanese-forged knives when moving onto the boat and for a long time left them packed up. We had no idea where or how to properly store them in a galley with extremely limited space.

Reminder: we like our countertops uncluttered and our solutions light-weight.

The Knife drawer Dilemma

Like Alex though, my big issue with drawers is:

• Who has the space to waste by inserting an in-drawer knife block?
• Loose storage of knife blades in a drawer will chip blade edges that the skipper worked so hard to sharpen.
• You’d need to invest in saya / sheaths to protect blades and these can be hard to find, costly and bulky.

Incidentally, our vast collection of utility knives are safely protected in hard bulky sheaths and live in a box stored in the saloon. That’s not going to cut it with kitchen knives in daily use.

We need something more practical and easier to use for the galley.

A SOLUTION

Back to the DIY store where I grumpily spotted a huge roll of black, rubber seams.

To be precise, these were “flexible rubber self-gripping edge protection strips which are used as a finish for sharp edges of metal sheets”. Hmm, sound familiar?

I popped a couple of metres of this in our trolley, forked out 5 Euros and told the bewildered skipper to bear with me. I had a cunning plan…

Once onboard TALATA, I pressed each knife into a seam and got cutting.

These rubber seams work brilliantly (when you remove the inner metal clasps spread at intervals inside)!

• Perfect fit for the curve and edge of any knife
• They take up no space
• Easy to remove and attach back on knives.
• So we can keep our sharp blades sharp  – IN A DRAWER!

So next time you’re somewhere you don’t want to be, tool around a bit. Take a stab at something new. You may just find your secret weapon.