Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I really wanted to like this product. So much, in fact, that I ordered two of them in different styles. Finding a universal knife block that is well-constructed, beautiful, and can handle large knives is next to impossible. I have several long knives (including a large 11" Global G-17 chef's knife) and finding a block that can even accommodate them has been a challenge. The editors of Cook's Illustrated rated the 360 Knife Block from Design Trifecta (also available on Amazon) as their top choice for a universal knife block, but for $300 or more, it's very expensive. I started looking for alternatives and was excited by these beautiful looking Italian blocks which, while still expensive for a knife block, were much more affordable. My first order was for the model with natural finish and black accents. The block arrived and was as beautifully designed as I'd anticipated with the exception that the magnets on this model were exposed rather than being inside the block. (This is not true of the "Natural" finish model I would purchase later -- the magnets are inside the wood on that model, making it much more attractive). The images of the product in the Amazon description never show the block from an angle where the magnets are visible, which is somewhat strange. But since my knives would be covering the magnets, this wasn't a big deal to me. What was a big deal were the globs of wood glue on the black accents holding the block together. On each connection, there were various amounts of visible glue -- an issue I've never even seen on another wood product (and my home is filled with wood). An additional problem was that several of the bottom edges of the block were rough and frayed looking because they were improperly sanded and finished. Problems with the finish were evident throughout the block. While the exterior -- the back, front, sides, and edges -- of each board in the block had a solid finish, the interior of the block was unevenly finished. If you run your hand down each board, there spots that are rough to the touch (unlike the smooth, finished exterior) -- spots that look visibly "dry" and rough compared to the smoother wood around it. Dismayed with these issues, I boxed it up and returned it. Perhaps foolishly, I ordered another model I thought would have fewer issues. And I guess I was right. The Natural finish model does not have the black accent wood in the center to hold it together ("No glue blobs!") but instead has a piece of wood running along the base of the unit ("No frayed edges!"). And the Natural model has a few extra magnets (more storage!) that are actually embedded in the wood and aren't visible. Another advantage about not having the black accent wood in the middle is that you don't have to worry about bumping it when retrieving a knife, damaging the wood or dulling the knife. When it arrived, I took it out of the box and noticed a small dent on the corner of the front piece of wood. I sighed. But it was a very small dent and I was willing to overlook it. Apart from that minor blemish, it was beautiful. It held all my knives, and the extra magnets meant that my kitchen shears could have a bit of extra space on the lower rows -- a plus. But like the model with black accents, the finish on the interior of the block, and also on the piece of wood on the bottom, was uneven and rough. As with the dent, I was content to overlook this problem because of how much I liked the look of the block. So I placed it on my butcher block, made dinner, and went to bed. This morning I discovered that in the course of my dinner-making, a few small droplets of oil had gotten onto the block. On the edges of the block, where it is properly finished, I simply wiped the oil off and had no further problem (as one would expect). But on the interior of the block, where it isn't fully finished, the oil was absorbed and the wood darkened and discolored. I showed it to my wife, and her remark was "That's going to look like crap in no time." Yes. Yes it will. I have a ton of wood in my kitchen: a butcher block, seven or eight cutting boards, a number of wooden bowls and utensils... I have never -- EVER -- had anything wooden that was designed for the kitchen become discolored from being exposed to a small amount of oil. And indeed, everything else in my kitchen is DESIGNED to be periodically coated with oil for maintenance purposes. This product is advertised as having a "lacquer finish with stain resistant treatment is compatible with food contact." This is partly true, because only parts of these blocks have this finish. The rest is essentially unfinished and unsealed. If you were to coat these blocks with an NSF-certified food-grade oil designed for wood, they would look like hot garbage the next morning, as the unfinished parts would darken and discolor while the properly lacquered parts would remain unchanged. This flaw, common to both the blocks I received, render these blocks basically unusable in a real kitchen environment. I implore the manufacturer to rethink the finish on this product. Either provide a thick and consistent lacquer that will stand up to real life use or, better yet, drop the lacquer altogether and opt instead for a finish that consumers can maintain themselves with a NSF certified mineral oil like Boo's Mystery Oil or Emmet's Elixir. If the Natural finish block I received had a proper finish, it would have been next to perfect. And if it didn't have that small dent, it would have actually been perfect. I really wanted to love these blocks. You have no idea how much I did. But when I received items with obvious blobs of wood glue, rough edges, dented corners, and an uneven finish that discolors the very first time you use the block, I'm afraid there's nothing to love here. Well, almost nothing. Sometimes, they say, you can love the idea of a person but not love the actual person before you. That's pretty much my relationship with these blocks. They manifest a beautiful concept in a shoddy execution. And while I might be able to overlook these flaws in a $35 knife block, at $135, these flaws are unforgivable. The included photos show both the overall beauty and utility of the design of the model. You can see that it holds my 11" Global knife with room to spare, and can also hold kitchen shears with room for a paring knife on the first row. (Amazon's computers rotated the straight-on photo of the front, for some reason). The other photos illustrate the construction defects I've talked about in this review. There are pictures of the wood glue and (one of the) frayed edge on the Black Accents model, as well as the small dent on the corner and the stained finish on the Natural finish model. Again, I really hope this design gets refined to have a better finish. I would buy this block again in a heartbeat if I knew it had a durable finish.