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JMJones

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There are a many makers that produce quality hand made kitchen knives. I am wondering if the community feels that there are any niches or gaps in products that the current makers are not filling. Examples may be rustic or forge finished, ultra high end art knives, very complex damascus, different knife styles...ect?

So what do you think?
 
Bread knives!

I would commission a custom lefty bread knife in an instant if I could find anyone making them.
 
I would say:

Custom steel-compositions
taylormade handles
 
I'd like to see a little more done with paring knives---super nice handles, for instance.
 
Today, when another pair of 150mm knives arrived in the mail, and I quickly remembered this thread. It's probably 10th or so 150mm knife that I've bought. You may wonder why the hell would I buy so many 150mm knives. That's the most popular knife size in Russians kitchens hands down. My mother or grandma, or any friends have knives of such size in the kitchens. Yet, mostly they have crappy soft steel knives. So I'm slowly infiltrating them with good ones. And I realized that's most custom knife makers here on KKF are focused on larger knives. With some rare exceptions for a small paring knives (~90mm).

If there were decent 150mm knives in ~100-150$ range from KKF vendors I'd be interested in them.
 
I'd like to see more concave-bodied knives with decent finishing. Other than Takeda and some experimental pieces by WillC that I can't buy, I can't remember encountering such knives.
 
My 150 mm Catchside petty is probably the only knife that gets used every day in our kitchen
 
XooMG said:
I'd like to see more concave-bodied knives with decent finishing. Other than Takeda and some experimental pieces by WillC that I can't buy, I can't remember encountering such knives.
Click to expand...

Marko does that grind and his knives are very nicely finished.

Single bevel knives seem to rare among custom knife makers.

Hoss
 
DevinT said:
Marko does that grind and his knives are very nicely finished.

Single bevel knives seem to rare among custom knife makers.

Hoss
Click to expand...
Haha, another maker presently unavailable to me!
 
icanhaschzbrgr said:
If there were decent 150mm knives in ~100-150$ range from KKF vendors I'd be interested in them.
Click to expand...

You have a point with makers concentrating more on larger knives, but that is mostly because the buyers do so. Also - larger knives are often used for wider field of task where the performance of the blade (or lack of it) shows more. If you take the custom knives on the cheaper (and simpler) side - you can get a 240mm gyuto for about $400. From the same maker a 150mm knife will probably still cost at least $200 and so many (of us) rather save up on that gyuto than get smaller knife made.

Still - I think that it would be tough to make custom knife in that price range and still make profit out of it - at least in the western world. While many custom makers charge by the blade length, there is certain amount of fix costs that do not scale with the size of the knife and so there is certain minimal price that is probably hard to go below. At least so I think.
 
Matus said:
You have a point with makers concentrating more on larger knives, but that is mostly because the buyers do so. Also - larger knives are often used for wider field of task where the performance of the blade (or lack of it) shows more. If you take the custom knives on the cheaper (and simpler) side - you can get a 240mm gyuto for about $400. From the same maker a 150mm knife will probably still cost at least $200 and so many (of us) rather save up on that gyuto than get smaller knife made.

Still - I think that it would be tough to make custom knife in that price range and still make profit out of it - at least in the western world. While many custom makers charge by the blade length, there is certain amount of fix costs that do not scale with the size of the knife and so there is certain minimal price that is probably hard to go below. At least so I think.
Click to expand...

Yep, right on the money.
Hoss
 
JMJones said:
There are a many makers that produce quality hand made kitchen knives. I am wondering if the community feels that there are any niches or gaps in products that the current makers are not filling. Examples may be rustic or forge finished, ultra high end art knives, very complex damascus, different knife styles...ect?

So what do you think?
Click to expand...
i have a very hard time finding knives with taller blade height, and actual flat profiles.
 
Matus said:
You have a point with makers concentrating more on larger knives, but that is mostly because the buyers do so. Also - larger knives are often used for wider field of task where the performance of the blade (or lack of it) shows more. If you take the custom knives on the cheaper (and simpler) side - you can get a 240mm gyuto for about $400. From the same maker a 150mm knife will probably still cost at least $200 and so many (of us) rather save up on that gyuto than get smaller knife made.

Still - I think that it would be tough to make custom knife in that price range and still make profit out of it - at least in the western world. While many custom makers charge by the blade length, there is certain amount of fix costs that do not scale with the size of the knife and so there is certain minimal price that is probably hard to go below. At least so I think.
Click to expand...
I believe that WillC specifies that he'll only do small customs (I forget what his definition of 'small' is) if ordered with a larger knife also.

Be well,
Mikey
 
As to complex damascus, considering the works of DT, HHH, Bill Burke, David Litch, and others, how much more complex can you ask for?

Be well,
Mikey
 
3d? We can make a killing with 3d glasses :D
 
WildBoar said:
Butchering knives and knives like honesukes seem to be pretty rare...
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Rader has done a bunch of honesukis. He's also done custom petty knives and paring knives as well, IIRC.
 
Octagonal twist handles maybe?


Sent from my iPhone using Kitchen Knife Forum
 
IMO, nobody does custom bread knives because they are generally throw away knives. I think Stefan has a custom handled Gude that's nice. I'd never buy an expensive serrated knife, sharpening it is a nightmare. As for parers, there are tons of customs out there. I have two from Pierre that are sweet.
 
I have a Masahiro bread knife that I paid too much for but as far as serrated knives go it's slightly less of a PITA to sharpen. No doubt if I ever replace it I will pick up a Gude.
I can't say I see the attraction to custom knives other than enjoying seeing the photos of what others have bought. There's just so many high quality production knives available at reasonable prices.
 
Good cleavers. I have seen a few cleavers from various makers but thats about it you never seen tons of different ones. I understand there isnt a huge amount of cleaver users and the work is alot more time consuming. Also western boning and filleting knives you dont see alot. And a gutting knife for fish. Oh and hankotsu.
 
I think something like the Carter KU line would be popular, if someone could produce a rustic, stainless clad carbon knife in a range of styles, 220-250 gyutos, 180-210 petties etc, basic handles.
 
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