Gifts for Chefs

Anyone who cooks seriously already has knives, and that is precisely why a good one still works as a gift. Most home kitchens run on a stamped supermarket set that has never been properly sharpened. One forged chef knife changes how cooking feels, and it is the sort of upgrade people put off buying for themselves for years.

What to buy for which cook

Forged, not stamped

Almost every kitchen knife sold is punched out of a sheet of steel. Ours are forged: the billet is layered, drawn and shaped under a hammer, hardened to 58 to 60 HRC and ground by hand. That is why the edge holds and why the blade has weight where it should. It is also why these cost what they cost.

Questions

What is the best knife to give a keen cook? An eight inch chef knife. It is the knife they will use more than every other knife combined, and the one most likely to be tired and dull already.

Is a Damascus kitchen knife practical or just pretty? Practical, with one rule: hand wash and dry it. Damascus is reactive steel, so a wet blade left on the board will spot.

Can kitchen knives be engraved? Yes, usually a surname or initials on the blade, up to 20 characters, as a paid option before checkout.

Are these dishwasher safe? No, and neither is any knife worth owning. Heat and detergent wreck natural handles and dull the edge.

What angle are they sharpened to? Around 15 to 18 degrees per side for the kitchen blades, which is finer than our field knives and right for food.

Are these made in the USA? Forged, heat treated, ground and handled in our own American shop.

More reading

See the kitchen knives, the cleaver knives, the steak knives or the wedding gifts.