D6| Saturday/Sunday, March 7 - 8, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Of course working with a vision-
ary has its...moments. “We love
Bob, but we joke all the time that
he’s the hardest person to work
with,” said Ms. Rosenberg. “Unbe-
lievably meticulous in what he
does. There are things that Bob can
see that nobody else can see.”
It’s not just big-name companies
making fine blades more accessible.
When Quintin Middleton first
started making knives 17 years ago
outside Charleston, S.C., he spent
plenty of time in restaurant kitchens
watching and talking to cooks, going
so far as to study the calluses on
their hands to see where the knife
rubbed. He came up with a design—
an elegantly and ergonomically
curved handle and a notch near the
base of the blade for a comfortable
grip—meant to make long use as
painless as possible. After his hand-
made knives, which start at about
$440, became favorites of marquee
chefs, he wanted to make something
within reach of the line cooks who
influenced his designs.
When Mr. Middleton created his
Echo line, which offers a chef’s knife
for $240, rather than seeking out a
large manufacturer, he decided to
keep production in-house. “I like the
control, and I get to bring more jobs
to the area,” he said.
Ultimately, whether it’s a
$24,000 knife from Bob Kramer or
a $240 knife from Quintin Middle-
ton, Mr. Shaw rejects the notion of
blades for bling’s sake. “A knife is
just a sharp object that can take
one thing and turn it into two
things, whether that’s a lemon or
an onion or a steak,” he said. “As
far as I’m concerned, use your veg-
etable nakiri to slice a chicken if
you want, use a paring knife to
chop an onion if it makes you
happy, use your cleaver to fillet
fish, if you can pull it off.”Incisive Choices
A reporter’s quest for
keener cutleryResearching the meticulous
metalwork featured in this
story—much of it well outside
my own cutlery allowance—I
wondered how I might get more
out of the knives I am using.
The easiest path to a sharp
blade I found wasKnife Aid
(knifeaid.com), a mail-in sharp-
ening service that starts at $59
for four knives. The morning af-
ter I placed my order, a prepaid
envelope arrived by Priority
Mail with protective sleeves
and clear instructions. I packed
my knives off, and six days later
they came back sharp as new.Subscription serviceF.N.
Sharp(fnsharp.com)sells
kitchen and steak knives—a Da-
mascus-steel set of chef’s knife,
6-inch Santoku and paring knife
plus acacia knife block runs
$880—and when they get dull,
swaps them out for razor-sharp
replacements. The first three
sharpenings are included; after
that, it’s $60 for three knives.The handy volume “Sharp”
by Josh Donald($28, Chronicle
Books)—owner of Bernal Cut-
lery, with two Bay Area shops—
promises “a knife-skills class in
book form.” It includes guidance
on the hows and whys of se-
lecting and maintaining a
kitchen armory, plus a clear,
well-illustrated tutorial on how
to sharpen using waterstones.For something more hands-
on, I went toKorin(korin.com),
a Manhattan shop that’s im-
ported Japanese cutlery since- Knife master Vincent Lau
conducts classes on how to use
a sharpening stone. Hold the
knife at the angle of the edge
you want and draw it smoothly
against the stone. The prospect
of maintaining both a steady
angle and even pressure was
daunting, but Mr. Lau reassured
me. “You have to be doing
something wrong for a fairly
long time to mess up your
knife,” he said. “Unless you’ve
been grinding on a rough stone
for like seven hours straight, it’s
not something unfixable.”
—M.K.
ALL WHETA knife is
sharpened at Korin in
Manhattan.Launched by the Japanese company
Yoshida Metal Industry in 1985, the
Global design had a dimpled steel
handle that blended seamlessly with
the blade—an immediate icon that
“people admire but they never use.”
In the last few years, knifemak-
ers have attracted fanbases on par
with those of indie musicians and
fashion designers. Kona, Hawaii-
based bladesmith Neil Kamimura
has 438,000 followers on Insta-
gram. Nick Anger, in Johnson, Vt.,
has 118,000.
People are drawn to knifemak-
ers’ social-media feeds by the
drama of the process—glowing
steel, flying sparks—as well as the
finished products. For most follow-
ers, however, these are knives to
admire but never use: So vastly has
demand outstripped supply that,
increasingly, would-be buyers of
artisanal knives meet with the re-
frain “Our books are closed.”
After Olympia, Wash.-based knife
artisan Mareko Maumasi appeared
on the Joe Rogan Experience pod-
cast in 2018, the waiting list for one
of his knives (average price: $4,600)
swelled to three years. He had to
stop taking new orders. A former
protégé of Mr. Kramer’s, Mr. Mau-
masi is revered for his skill in creat-
ing exquisitely patterned Damascus
steel, made by fusing various al-
loyed steels together to create a fi-
nal blade that can take a very sharp
edge and hold it longer—character-
istics often at odds.
“Ultimately, we are creating tools,
and they should function as tools
before they are aesthetically pleas-
ing,” said Mr. Maumasi. “For a long
time I didn’t want to make knives
that are just going to hang on the
wall.” But conversations with his
wife helped him come to terms with
the fact that “there may be people
who just see them as art.”
Jason Bond, chef-owner of Bondir
restaurant in Cambridge, Mass.,
counts a number of Nick Anger’s
knives among his most-used tools.
He worries that collectors can keep
knives out of the hands of people
who actually want to use them.
“They’re going for a trophy,” said
Mr. Bond. “They’re going to put it in
a box like a Star Wars character and
sell it in five years for double what
they paid for it.”
In this new landscape, where theline between artisan and artist has
all but disappeared, it only makes
sense that knife dealers would be-
come gallerists. At least that’s the
de facto role Abe Shaw has taken
with his company, Eatingtools. He
launched a little over seven years
ago, selling $75 titanium chop-
sticks. These days the chopsticks
are still on offer, along with a ro-
tating assortment of one-of-a-kind
knives, such as a $1,950 mosaic-
patterned Damascus-blade chef
knife from Salem Straub; a $1,050
nakiri, or vegetable cleaver, from
Don Carlos Andrade; and a fear-
some looking $1,525 petty knife
from Nick Anger.
“The most common reason for an
artist to work with me is that they
want to make their art,” said Mr.
Shaw. “Running a business is very
different from making art, and they
don’t want to deal with it. I’m repre-
senting their work. The cut I take
from a sale is worth it to them.”
Though the knives he sells are
out of reach for many, Mr. Shaw
sees the work of independent mak-
ers influencing major brands. It en-
courages “the big players to con-
stantly innovate and to outdo their
previous designs and to outdo the
previous methods.”
Nowhere is that more apparent
than in partnership between Zwill-
ing J.A. Henckels, the 288-year-old
German cutlery maker, and Bob
Kramer. This is no mere matter of
Mr. Kramer simply stamping his
name on a few blades. According to
Joanna Rosenberg, chief marketing
officer for Zwilling, “Bob really
pushed forward this new treatment
of these steels that allows them to
be both very, very sharp [and] chip
resistant. That has been a big win
for us because it’s not as much of a
trade off as it always used to be.”Continued from page D1What the
Knife Nerds
Are Wielding
F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (KNIVES); MATT TAYLOR-GROSS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (KORIN SHARPENING)
‘They’re going to put it
inaboxlikeaStarWars
character and sell it in
five years for double
what they paid for it.’EATING & DRINKING
One of the things
I really do love
about this knife is
that handle. It’s
clear that [knife-
maker Quintin
Middleton] con-
sidered the way
that chefs hold
knives. I knowthat I’m a lot
more comfortable
holding this knife
than I am other
knives. It’s not as
hard on my hand.—Ashleigh Shanti,
Benne on Eagle,
Asheville, N.C.10.5-inch
Misono Swedish
Carbon Steel
Gyuto$209,
korin.com“This knife insists
you take care of
it—the carbon
steel will discolor
or rust if left ex-
posed to acid or
moisture. But this
workhorse of a
knife is by no
means precious.
Swedish steel pro-
vides excellent
edge retention and
sharpens easily,
even by a less-
than-expert hand.
I’ve used several
knives from this
line in professional
kitchens for over a
decade and have
never once
chipped an edge or
a tip, which is
more than I can
say for some pric-
ier Japanese steel
counterparts.”—Danny Rojo,
Lot 2, Brooklyn6-inch Silverthorn
Boning$185,
bernalcutlery.com“I love this boning
knife simply be-
cause it is super
functional—flexible
enough to get into
any nook and
cranny of bone-in
short ribs when I
need to clean
them—but also be-
cause it’s so sleek
and beautiful. Any-
one can use it to
butcher and clean
all kinds of differ-
ent meats.”—Mei Lin,
Nightshade,
Los Angeles8-inch Zwilling
Kramer Euroline
Damascus Chef
$400,
zwilling.com“WhenIamface-
to-face with a
monstrous
amount of vege-
table prep, I’m
reaching for this.
Its weight and
shape just fit per-
fectly in my hand.
Comfort when
holding a knife is
a must: It makes
prepping salads
exponentially eas-
ier. Its stainless
steel material is
also ideal. It can
withstand wear-
and-tear, and
that’s what any
chef truly needs.”—Michael
Solomonov,
Zahav,
Philadelphia12.72-inch Anger
Knives Tunnel
Mosaic Damascus
Chef$1,850,
eatingtools.com“Obviously, they’re
beautiful. But the
Damascus work
aside, I don’t know
if you would nec-
essarily pinpoint a
classic Nick Anger
shape. I also have
a fillet knife of his
that has a nice
light flex but gets
sharp really easily.
His knives perform
well at whatever
purpose they’re
made for.”—Jason Bond,
Bondir, Cam-
bridge, Mass.Chefs love their toys. But for them a good knife is
so much more: the key to their livelihood and a
piece of functional art that makes prep a pleasure.
Here, top toques weigh in on their favoritesBlades of Glory
8-inch Middleton
Made Chef
$440, middleton-
madeknives.com