Concealed mounting of knives and scissors

Solution for exhibit presentation in museums

Author: Klötzli Messerschmiede GmbH, Burgdorf

Online since: 06/12/2021, Number of visits: 41779

At our company, we often use magnets for exhibiting our display models. The magnets do not obscure the knives and scissors, making it possible to admire them in all their splendour.

In 2021, we celebrated the 175th anniversary of our company. To honour the occasion, we set up a small museum with special exhibits in the old rooms of the Klötzli cutler’s workshop. The highlights are the walls with 684 historic knives and scissors, with the oldest knife in the exhibition having been crafted in 1760. Here too, we used magnets as part of the concealed mounting to avoid covering the beautiful detailing.

With the magnets, the exhibits in the museum were invisibly attached to the wall

The dark-blue back panel
The back panel is made of fibreboard, which is a soft wooden board. It is very easy to push pins into this type of wooden board. We covered the back panel with dark-blue fabric which creates a nice contrast to the metal exhibits. When showing display models, it also lets the patterns and colours of the handles stand out even more. To attach the exhibits to this back panel, we used the following two types of magnets in addition to the pins:

countersunk pot magnet Ø 10 mm, type CSN-10
countersunk pot magnet Ø 13 mm, type CSN-13

Concealed mounting of knives and scissors
We attached the exhibits in such a way that they do not rest directly on the back panel. That’s where the magnets came into play. Since the knives and scissors are made of metal, they serve as a surface for magnets. We inserted the pin into the hole of the pot magnet and then attached the magnet to the exhibition piece. Depending on the size of the piece, we used between one to three of these little mounting assemblies per piece. Then we could easily push the pins into the wooden panel. And with that, the invisible mounting for the presentation of the products was complete. With this method, it looks as if the knives and scissors in our museum are suspended in the air without anything holding them up.

How to get the exhibits to hang straight
Our exhibition pieces in the museum weigh between 10 g and 150 g, which is why we attached 1–3 magnets, depending on the size of the scissors or knife. This method made sure that the museum piece did not hang crooked on the back panel. Sometimes, ornamentations, handles or screws protrude and reduce the distance between the exhibit and the panel in certain places. In those cases, we placed two magnets on top of each other and then attached them to the knife or the scissors. As a result, we achieved an equal distance over the entire length of the exhibition piece.

Pins as supports for heavy exhibits
Some knives and scissors are large and somewhat heavy. For these displays, we used extra pins as supports underneath the exhibition piece in addition to the magnets. A pocket knife, for instance, can also rest on these support pins.

Thanks to pins, the knives and scissors hang straight.

Pins as mountings for lightweight and narrow pieces
We did not use magnets for lighter or very narrow pieces, such as small scissors, as they would have been visible. Instead, we were able to easily attach those museum pieces with a few pins. The real challenge was the artful arrangement of the exhibits to create a nice, tidy display. Using this method, we needed a total of 630 magnets for 684 display items.

If you would like to take a closer look at all the museum pieces, you can find more information about the exhibition on our website: https://www.klotzli.com/de/Geschichte/Alte-Werkstatt-/-Museum