- Joined
- Dec 27, 2010
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- 6,852
Not quite. I'll explain why I think that in a moment.
But first, I should be clear that I don't deny that there's a market for high-end kitchen cutlery with fancy material. But my suspicion is that there would be likely a larger market for monosteel blades with G10 or carbon fiber handles offered at a lower price point, particularly on here.
Back to my response to Don's point. What I'm saying is that there's a difference in perspective on kitchen knives vs other types of knives. I would venture to say that a kitchen knife, to most people, indicates a USER knife (take Rick's first post in here as an example). I mean, when you think of kitchen knives, do you think of them as being for use or display? That's not to say that the same can't be true of bowies and other knives, but then, the predominant sense I have gotten, in my admittedly limited experience, seems to suggest that people prefer monosteel blades for users, and damascus for display knives. There have been a couple of threads in both the General forum as well as the Custom Knives forum to that effect.
Major difference #2 is that, because kitchen knives aren't commonly considered display knives, you won't see them getting displayed on neat stands, etc, like you may with a presentation bowie. Instead, they get thrown in a drawer in the kitchen, or stuck in a knife block. If it comes in a box, it may hang out in the box for special occasions, but if it's going to be in regular use in a kitchen, you're likely not going to be displaying it somewhere where the damascus is visible, which, considering the aesthetic value of damascus and the perception that monosteel is generally better for a user, means that it's probably more inappropriate on a kitchen knife, at least for this forum.
Difference #3 is that the majority of this forum has potentially skewed perspectives on what constitutes an expensive knife when it comes to thinking about folders vs fixed vs kitchen knives. Again, I don't deny that there is a market out there. But I believe the initial question was: why not here?
So I think the problem is two-fold. First, consider how small a percentage of the group of average knife users actually cooks, and uses their kitchen knives on a regular basis. If they don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen, they're not likely to want a custom kitchen knife. If they're traditional families, where the woman is the one doing most of the cooking (hate to be sexist, but there it is), consider how few female members we have as is. Not to say there aren't plenty of guy chefs on here, but I'd bet there's a smaller portion of the membership here who spend a lot of time in the kitchen, as compared to those who spend more time out in the woods. And who's gonna bring their 1000 dollar 9" chef or santoku out to the bush, right? So there's a limited market already on here for those who would actually WANT to buy a custom kitchen knife, and many of them won't want to spend a lot of money.
Second, consider that most of the kitchen knives that DO get put up, tend to be damascus and expensive handle materials which require considerably more care. I'm one of the guys who cooks literally every day. I use knives to cook every time, of course, and I've made a few knives for my own kitchen because I needed better knives than what I had available. But I use my knives hard, and with the number of dishes I create and how much time I have for cleaning, it's a boon that most of my knives are dishwasher safe. I wouldn't want to throw a damasteel custom with expensive handle materials in the dishwasher. However, I'd absolutely buy a basic model with monosteel and inexpensive but tough handle materials. Sounds like Morrow is in the same boat. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there's at least some of a market for a custom kitchen knife in 154CM or something with a carbon fiber handle, offered at a sub $1000 price point (200-500 would be my spitball guess as to what people would consider a good deal). Is there a market for fancier models? Sure. But is that the market here on Blade Forums?
