Kitchen Cutlery

the one thing you all know that while we are a forum fulll of knife nuts that many are not foodies or even driven to top tier kitchen knives

of the kitchen forums that i have at one point or another sold knives on its been truly hard to get themm to trust a makers work. alot of the time the buyers are fair in there fear of a new maker as many are used to making hunters and bowies and those are totally different then a kitchen knife in nearly every way

a kitchen knife sales subforum might be a good idea tho
 
I've made more paring knives than any other single type, and have 4 more in the queue. I literally can't keep up with the friends and family orders to get any onto the forum, and I'd LIKE to, if only to help establish myself and my price point.

The first paring knife I sent into the world generated interest in two or three more - from women.
In fact, I have nearly a 50/50 gender ratio in my customers/recipients largely due to a solid paring knife design.

I'll join the seconds for a kitchen cutlery subforum. I constantly remark (to myself, and sometimes in posts) how folks that think their big ol' camp knives are great in the kitchen have clearly never used a real kitchen knife. Ok, ok, I've slaughtered a pizza or watermelon or two with my BK-5, but that's not the point!

Here are a few paring knives that were featured in the gallery.

The first two:

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A matched pair hiker and paring knife for a couple:

IMG_20120902_100926-small.jpg
 
Here's my take on this... As I and my wife are foodies and cook a lot more than most... and I'm a knife nut too :) I've actually spent a fair bit of time thinking abd wondering about the topic.

Basically most kitchen knife users want a low maintenance knife, I'm not talking knife folks, but general users. So the steel has to be stainless, and the handles have to be food safe, and washable, and all has to tolerate being left with food on it for an hour or three while a meal is being prepared. My wife is a prime example. She loves her knives and wouldn't dream of putting them in the dishwasher, but they do still get left for for sometimes more than an hour with food on them, or dropped in the sink while she moves on the next dish and left to get splashed and soaked when the tap gets run until clean up time.

I have a couple carbon knives I use but no one else in the house does because they aren't interested in the "work" of cleaning them immediately.

Next there is the perceived value and awareness... Most users are unaware of how much better a knife can be in the kitchen, and even knife knuts who have great knives in other areas don't see this because most other knives are not optimized for kitchen type use so they don't see tjhe gains in a thin flat grind so they don't see how much better it could be.

The other thing is that the steel used are usually not super steels with great edge retention hardened to higher hardnesses they get treated like the makers hard use knives so they won't benefit as much as they could. For instance 3V can be hardened to Rc 62 and still be tougher than most other knife steels at 57-59, yet virtually no one does this. I would love to have some really great basic utilitarian kitchen knives in 3 or M390 or similar... basic flat grind, or santoku, style, nice looking but indestructible micarta handles. I know that compared to a similar hunter or EDC knife the cost is higher because the knives are bigger, but they don't need the same level of super fine finish in my book I'd rather save the money. Also it seems that most makers when doing kitchen knives either go with really basic 1095, or crazy fancy damascus and exotic handles... Lets get premium steel and design with basic utility rather than exotic. most kitchen users aren't going to shell out big $$ for a gorgeous damascus blade they have to fuss over all the time. That has stopped me from buying mroe than one knife I really liked the look of, It would look like crap in no time with the treatment it got from the family so its not worth it.

I have been looking at a couple of the kitchen knives that makers posted on here a while back, but I need to save up that kind of cash, since I have a family. maybe make the pruchase for a Christmas gift. And of course the final factor there's no hiding a Kitchen knife from the wife. :)

Last, really this is the last last one... :) we all already have knives we make do with. so we aren't desparate to get something, and we'r eunlikely to be able to sell the crap we have now to fund new better ones. :D
 
just need to point out that yes there is a kitchen knife forum (just not a special sale forum )

AKS now has some 3v and cpm154 dammy mix but not in the size we woudl need for kitchen work (bee wanting to get some of this for a while now )
 
If there is enough interest in a separate forum for kitchen cutlery in the Knifemaker's section of the Exchange, we can ask Spark to create it.
 
I would be interested in having a separate kitchen knife sales forum, however I hope it does better than the kitchen knife forum that is already here. I dont think that adding a sales forum really changes things much though. We already have great custom makers of kitchen knives here (Burk, Rader, Devin Thomas, Harner, Lisch ect ect. What we are lacking on Bladeforums is the customers of high end kitchen knives (kitchen knife enthusiasts and foodies) and adding a sales forum does not change that.
 
A lot of the guys mentioned are indeed builders of high end kitchen knives- but I don't see a lot of user-grade cutlery here. The aforementioned $100-$200 price range is low for anyone trying to make a truly good knife and not lose their shirt, but I can make 10" chefs in the upper $200's and feel like I got paid a fair price. With knife making, so often people want to make fancier and higher end pieces as their skill and shop allows- less people want to concentrate on making good, minimally embellished working knives. Maybe we could build a market here for that- sure there are other forums and venues for kitchen cutlery sales on the net, but they all have their downsides as well and over time people may appreciate another option. Of course the addition of a kitchen sales forum here wouldn't change anything right away.

Let me add that I feel W2 and 52100 are not plain carbon steels at all- they both have very desirable qualities for a larger kitchen knife. It's just that trends in the cutlery industry have been lately about VG10, S30V, high-wear stainless that unfortunately like to chip at higher RC's. As for 3V, I've not tried it, but my adventures with some other high vanadium steels such as CruForgeV have left me at the conclusion that grinding large blades out of them can be quite miserable and I will only do it for the right price!
 
I wouldn't be surprised if people were willing to pay 200-500 for a good monosteel kitchen knife, or maybe 1000-1500 for a set of 3-5 knives. My comment was just that most people aren't accustomed to spending that much for kitchen knives.

Might be interesting to put up a poll in the general section or something to ask if people would be interested in seeing a kitchen knife forum with more affordable kitchen knives.
 
I'd be interested in a Kitchen Knives for Sale section. It can't possibly be any more deader than some of the other forums on here! ;) And who knows, once people start linking out to it, it may become the "go to" place for Kitchen Cutlery!
 
I offer a line of kitchen knives and have for quite a few years. The knives are designed for everyday use and are made from high quality stainless steel – either Becut or Niolox. The carbon steel knives are made from 1.2519 or Balbach hand-forged carbon Damascus.

I have a few knives made from 1.4116 stainless which is the most widely used steel in Solingen.

I guess I should be more aggressive in marketing the knives as I have sold hundreds of them and many buyers retrn for more... must be doing something right!

I also do not hand grind the kitchen knives because they need to be very thin on the cutting edge to peform and the time needed to hand grind the knives would make them more expensive than most people are willing to pay. Plus, hand grinding would not bring any increase in performance.

Here are a few random pics, more are of course on my website.
 

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Kevin Wilkins said:
I also do not hand grind the kitchen knives because they need to be very thin on the cutting edge to peform and the time needed to hand grind the knives would make them more expensive than most people are willing to pay. Plus, hand grinding would not bring any increase in performance.
Click to expand...

Do you mean you use a grinder? I am not sure I follow what you mean, when you say you do not hand grind.
 
I make the blanks and then have an outside vendor grind the blades on a cnc grinding machine designed for that purpose. I'd love to have one myself but the setup costs about $250,000+ and the machines are pretty high maintenance to boot... The results are excellent and I finish the blades, make the grips etc etc... not like there's nothing left to do!
 
I fully support the addition of a Kitchen Knives for sale area. It would be extremely helpful right now as I am currently in the process of upgrading my kitchen knives and wouldn't mind supporting one of our custom makers. The knives I am looking at are priced in the $300 - $500 range and I feel custom makers have a lot to offer in that price point while still earning a fair wage for their product. How long to get this added?????
 
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