The Knife Rights booth at Blade Show is whereI go first to start locating the most current creations of great knife makers in a single location. The organizations’’ annual Ultimate Steel Spectacular isn’t just their primary fundraising function of the year, it’s where Blade Show attendees have their first chance to see awesome knives donated to help the organization. People wanting to support their work make donations and, in exchange, get entries into a random drawing where all those donations are given away.
The Knife Rights booth at Blade was jumping this weekend, as attendees ogled -and bought entries (top) into their Ultimate Steel giveaway. A $20 donation could mean your choice of a variety of donated prizes, from a Thompson .50 BMG rifle to any one of many custom knives. A good number of them this year include very high-end chef’s knives (bottom).
It was while I was ogling the donations that a single question kicked off what turned into a visit to a number of custom booths around the show floor.
The question? “What’s with all the chef knives?”
“Just four or five years ago,” Knife Rights’ Doug Ritter explained, “there were maybe five custom makers with chef knives. This year, it’s like everyone’s making them.”
He made his point showing me a exhibition case of Ultimate Steel Spectacular knives was filled -with custom chef knives. The prices ranged from high three to upper four digits. They were universally gorgeous, but t far from the only breathtaking “basic 8-inch chefs knives” being offered at Blade.
Wandering the aisles of Blade Show it was obvious that chef knives were“hot.” They were displayed throughout the show, in a nearly endless variety of handles (top) and exotic metals -with prices to match (bottom).
Walking the show, I asked a number of makers why they’d added these to their lines. Their answers ranged from “it’s the most basic kitchen knife, but most of the commercial ones are awful” to a very simple reasoning “Everyone eats. Everyone cooks. Good tools make cooking better.”
Knifemaker Tre Hill only offered chefs knives. He explained that making a basic tool that made an essential work (cooking) better was a challenge he enjoyed exploring.
Knifemaker Tre Hill of 3RD Hill Customs of Powder Springs, Georgia, was one of the knife makers whose products were only chef’s knives. When I asked him why that was the only knife he made, he answered simply: “I like making them, everyone needs them, and a well-made knife that fulfills a specific function is what knife making’s all about to me.”
Talking with several chefs shopping (and buying) knives, I asked one question: “what’s the essential knife in your roll?” Chefs routinely spend tens of thousands of dollars on their knives, and I expected a variety of answers. Wrong. Universally, whatever their particular food style, they all said the absolute essential for all kitchens was the 8-inch chef knife. It, they explained, could “cut fine, cut coarse, and in a pinch, really do everything necessary in a kitchen that require cutting.”
One chef said “give me a great 8-inch chefs knife, a really solid paring knife and a serrated bread knife and I can prepare anything.”
Knife makers and chefs all agreed that the rising interest in cooking -and cooking tools - was at least partially due to COVID lockdowns. With restaurants closed or severely limited, people - out of necessity - started cooking their own meals. And, as one chef explained, “nothing shows you how bad your average cheap home knife set is faster than using it meal -after-meal. Making more meals - better- requires good tools.”
“Wisthof, Shun, and Henckels sets got them interested in cooking,” he explained, “and some got interested in kitchen tools that would reflect their individuality and their abilities. That meant custom knives. Custom knife makers are artists, but they’re businesspeople, too. They want to make things people want. It was a natural conjunction of interests.”
People wanting a basic 8-inch chef knife that’s both useful and beautiful also seem to follow the old admonition of quality over price: “buy one, cry once.”
In return they get a reliable kitchen tool that can be passed on to the next generation along with their secret family recipes.
Alex Hossom’s Chef Knife was the Knifemakers Guild selection for best-in-show. Purchaser Jeff Folloder assured me that “this time next week, it’ll be in use in my kitchen prepping gumbo. It’s beautiful, but made to use.”
On the way out of the show, I stopped to look at a chef knife crafted buy Alex Hossom. It was the knife chosen as the “Best Chef Knife” of the Blade Show by the Knifemakers Guild.
Talking with his father, Jerry, (also an amazing knife maker) I learned more about the “why” of custom knife design than I’d have thought possible in a very few minutes.
“There’s more to a knife than it’s look, and overall quality,” Jerry explained, “good design should mean that when you pick it up and use it, whatever the position required, it feels like an extension of your hand, not something you’re just holding to do a job.”
Beauty, it seems, isn’t just skin deep. It also knife making, like great cooking, quickly separates artists and chefs from cooks.
We’ll keep you posted.
— Jim Shepherd
