Forgive the wall of text. Hope you find this review helpful. I have a Henckels knife block which has served me well for 30+ years. Then I bought a 12” chef’s knife and a 7” nakiri, both of which were too wide (2-1/4”) for my block. They lived for a year, sheathed, on my windowsill looking messy. Finally decided it’s time for a bigger block. I have 13 variously sized knives, plus a cleaver, steel, kitchen shears, carving fork and steak knives, that I wanted all in one place. It was going to be like a jigsaw puzzle, trying to accommodate them all. The biggest obstacle to my search was that few manufacturers or sellers bother to list the width of each slot under product information. A few wonderful customer-reviewers gave slot widths in their reviews, but there were sometimes minor discrepancies among them. Being off by a mere 1/8” could make or break a block’s workability for me. Finally, after hours of research, I ordered the Wusthof 17-Slot Block, only to find when it arrived that one slot was narrower than the 2-7/16” it purported to be. Back it went. The hunt continued. Then I discovered a review for the Wusthof 25-Slot Mega Block by “Examiner” that, bless him / her, listed the specs for all the slots. Here’s Examiner’s review for your shopping pleasure: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ June 25, 2019. Dimensions on the Slots From a Wusthof Representative. “Here are the dimensions on width of the slots from a Wusthof representative. (A) 13 at 1”; (B) 3 at 1-1/2”; (C) 1 at 1-1/4”; (D) 1 at 2”; (E) 1 at 3-1/2; (F) 2 at 2-1/4; (G) 1 at 2-1/2; (H) 1 for a honing steel; (I) 1 for shears; and (J) 1 for a fork (1-3/8 x 1/2”). If you want the corresponding lengths, you can reach Wusthof at 800-289-9878.” Thank you, Examiner, I think I love you! I ordered the Mega, tentatively hopeful. Turns out these dimensions were true, and the block worked for all my knives (well, mostly)! Here’s the good, bad and ugly of this knife block. GOOD: It actually accommodates almost all my knives, with a slot to spare. It is, however, one 1-1/4” slot shy of perfection for my particular set-up. My Global 5.25” utility knife just doesn’t want to fit anywhere. I’ve tried rearranging everything ten ways from Sunday and something had to give. So I’ve moved my kitchen shears back to the utensil drawer ???? and the utility knife now lives in its place. BAD: The Wusthof label is crooked. Drives my OCD self crazy. (It’s a cheesy metal plaque; the label is not engraved or burnt in.) I tried to adjust it but the rubber cement-type glue just snaps it back into (askew) place. I’d try to peel it off but I’m afraid I’d damage the wood underneath. My massive Costco steak knives don’t fit. But hey, can’t win ‘em all. I really want all my knives in one place, so will look for some smaller ones and donate the oversized steak knives to Good Will. UGLY: Nothing! The acacia wood is beautiful. There were no scratches, dings or split wood. The slots seem cleanly routed. It’s not as ginormous as I feared. It’s heavy (unlike the 17-Slotter) and clearly is solid wood. Love it. I highly recommend this knife block, especially if you don’t have a lot of strangely sized knives to worry about.
