Blade Geometry

Blade geometry is one of the biggest make or break factors in making a good chef knife. Its also something factory knives cant easily replicate. Most factory edges are around .02” of an inch that is 20 thousandths of an inch. which sounds small but in terms of edge geometry is pretty big, actually pretty huge. To give you a point of reference 3 thousandths is about 1 page of newspaper. I like to make my knives at .005” or 5 thousandths of an inch behind the cutting edge. The reason why is its easier to put a smaller wedge though any medium you’re trying to cut through. That’s why thinner knives glide through food and “japanese” knives cut so well. It’s not a matter of origin its a matter of geometry. Not only do thin knives cut better but they also stay sharper longer and are easier to sharpen. Sounds too good to be true right? Well lets think about what happens when you sharpen. A sharp edge is essentially a triangle, or a wedge. The thinner the base of the wedge the thinner the cross section of the tip of the edge. When you sharpen you remove steel to get that nice crisp edge again. If you have less steel to remove, sharpening will be faster and easier, even if the steel is harder. For example a knife that is 58 hrc and is .02” behind the edge will be harder to sharpen than a knife that is .005” behind the edge and 64 hrc. Even with a very thin edge you can still have great tough ness. With a convex grind and not chopping bone, I’ve never had a problem, in testing or with customers with edge chipping. Many people have had hard thin knives with micro chipping, or large chips come out of their knife’s edge, but that’s actually more a matter of the steel used, not edge geometry. Tool steels being used in chef knives, in my opinion, are not the best choice. They typically have large amounts of different alloys that form carbides. Carbides are awesome the lead to great edge retention, but they also can break out of the thin cross section of a blade and cause micro chipping. Many large companies use tool steels and even with .02” behind the edge have terrible micro chipping after normal use. I only use 26c3 (carbon) and nitroV (stainless). The reason being is they were specifically created to only be cutlery, razor blade, or scalpel steels. This is because the have extremely fine gain, and excellent edge stability (edge stability is the ability or lack there of for a steel to hold a thin edge and not fold over or chip at low angles).

Handle design

I chose to go with hidden tang style handle. Reason being is they’re the lightest weight, in my opinion look the best and are the easiest to balance. Full tang knives are fine, I have nothing against them. but you simply cant replicate the weight and balance of a hidden tang knife. Which is the another huge aspect of knife design, ergonomics. Ergonomics is just a 5 dollar word for how something feels to use. I designed my handles with the user in mind, including men and women of all sizes. My handles are technically octagonal, meaning eight sides, but the bottom part of the handle is rounded off slightly. That’s because I want the top to give good grip in the palm and the bottom to allow for free movement of the finger for whatever grip you prefer. You will not find a single part (besides the edge of course) that is sharp on my knives, every part you touch is rounded. Each knife is balanced for (7-8” at the logo, 6” at the bolster, and 4” slightly behind the bolster) for their intended task.