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TAKE IT Damascus steel bar spoons
($125), bar knives ($350), and ice
chippers ($265) can be ordered at
hjhaas.com.
AFTER 15 YEARS of mixing cocktails, most
recently at RiNo Yacht Club in Denver,
Haas turned her attention to crafting
better bar tools. “Our job is so theatrical,
yet we use crappy $12 serrated knives to
cut citrus,” she says. After studying at
the New England School of Metalwork
in 2016, Haas is now working to become
one of just five female Master Blade-
smiths in the world. At her workshop
outside of Denver, she forges gorgeous
“bar cutlery,” including muddlers, bar
spoons, knives, and ice chippers. She’s
become known for her pattern welding,
a labor-intensive method in which she
hammers together multiple layers of steel
into a single piece, treating the metal
with heat and pressure and then twisting
it to form intricate patterns, resulting in
one-of-a-kind barware like a Damascus
steel ice chipper, made with more than
200 layers. H.J. Haas pieces have become
coveted within the industry: Matt Poli,
formerly the beverage director at The
Catbird Seat in Nashville, ordered a set
of her Damascus steel steak knives for
the restaurant. “They were always a con-
versation starter when we set them on
the counter,” he says. But they’re not just
conversation pieces—they also feel good
to use. That’s by design, Haas explains:
“Chefs often say a knife is an extension of
their hand. The same goes for bar tools.
You want the ergonomics of a muddler
or spoon to be just right.”
Heather J. Haas is on a mis-
sion to elevate the bar experi-
ence, but to do so, she had to
get out from behind the bar.
below, from left: A great blade needs a great handle: Central American cocobolo,
brown-dyed box elder burl, and African blackwood. “Creating something beautiful
and functional from nothing is the most satisfying part of this process,” Haas says.