I saw these at a museum shop recently on a trip to either San Diego or LA. I thought they were great, but am not into this high-lacquer everything look, so I was thinking once I find an appropriate size box it would be a really easy DIY with skewers.

I saw something similar a couple years ago at the National Building Museum's Green House exhibit. I recreated it, just using baltic birch plywood for a box and regular bbq bamboo skewers. It works really well, though you need many more skewers than you'd imagine to keep the knives tight at the top. It makes sense that it wouldn't dull them because they aren't rubbing against the wood as they are in a traditional block, though a magnetic strip would serve the same purpose. I just made it because I liked the design, and haven't had any problems with the durability of the skewers.

Knives will dull just through use, I rather suspect what you keep them in has little to do with it.

Find someone professional to sharpen your knives or learn how to do it yourself. It's not hard and it's very soothing. Well, as long as you don't mind the shink of stone on steel.

Reminds me of these things you can get at Target or Bed Bath and Beyond. They've been around for a while:

http://www.kapoosh.com/kapooshhome.html