American Made Knives

I have been interested in buying great knives made in the USA. Anyone have any recommendations? I am a sous chef in a contemporary American restaurant and want to use only american food on the menu and also use American made knives. So far I have a Richmond Artifex 240 gyuto in AEB-l, and some Dexter knives. I have a twelve inch connoisseur. It is a huge badass knife. I also just ordered a 10inch Dexter connoisseur. The connoisseur line never seems to come up anywhere in online knife talk, in the professional kitchen they are great tough knives that sharpen easily. Once a week I sharpen them to the point where they will shave hair shapton professional stones.

Have used Dexter butcher knives. The Traditional without bolster is similar in quality to the Victorinox 10". Do not care for knives with full heel bolsters.

Are you asking about production knives made in the States or custom? What is the price point you are looking for?

There's a nice Marko knife currently on BST. Should easily outperform your Artifex and Dexter knives. US made.

Not much left in the pro grades beside Russell Harrington (Dexter). Lamson is trying to reorganize and move to a new plant after going under last year. Time will tell if that works. Assuming it isn't all old stock, Richmond does seem to be able to get knives out of Lamson so there may be hope.

Murray Carter....
Made in America by a Canadian who trained and spent a lot of years in Japan, but presently lives in Oregon. Not sure about the steel origin, but pretty sure it comes from the ground

Your Artflex was likely made in Japan, I don't follow that brand but my understanding is that Lamson made them originally and produced fatties that needed work in order to work. Mfr was moved to Japan and they don't suck. As much.

Ken Onion makes American knives for retail distribution. His last series "Rain" was made by Lamson and while they were quite overpriced they did suck a lot. He has a new series coming out, don't know where it will be manufactured, it will probably suck.

For the most part American manufacturers target the American housewife market. The housewife that rock chops so wants a lot of belly, the housewife that never sharpens so wants the most abrasion resistant stainless blade, the housewife that wants to show off the knife to her neighbors so wants a pretty handle - that can go in a dishwasher. In short they are designing knives that would be ill suited for the commercial kitchen.

I applaud your quest to buy American but doubt that off-the-shelf knives will provide a solution. You may be able to custom order a group of chef knives, etc from a maker here in US. Haburn, Ealy, HHH are names that immediately come to mind.

Good luck.

What's your budget ??

Bloodroot Blades, Del Ealy, Randy Haas, Devin Thomas, J.M. Jones, Andy Billipp.

Tough to give suggestions without a price range.

Anyone know where Ken Onion is having his current OEM knives made? I'm guessing Alcas would be a good candidate. They are very secretive about their clients. I do know that Ken was not happy with Lamson at all.

Actually, for mass produced (around $100) there is a "high end" line from Ontario Knife which is based in NY called Agilite that isn't bad, and, although the profile isn't for everybody, you can put an amazing edge on the knives from Warther since the steel is pretty darn good. I bought one took the edge down to 10 degrees per side with a one sided microbevel and it cuts really well...

For a bit more money, you can't beat the mid tech from HHH which are often available from BST

But why not buy an old forgecraft 10" from somebody via BST or on ebay, american made and easy to work with and takes a screaming sharp edge

Hey what do you all think about R Murphy knives? Their wellfleet oyster knife is awesome, but I saw someone mention on facebook that they also make carbon steel kitchen knives. Mixed reviews, one loved it, the other called it fat.

http://www.rmurphyknives.com/store/Cooking_Knives_Chefs_Select.html

Curious because they're not even 20 minutes away from me.

I have a carbon R. Murphy boner that I like a lot. I just posted a pic on the what's in your bag thread. It's lost a little weight since I got it but still sort of looked like a shiv when new.

Nobody was happy with Lamson...if go custom, great names mentioned already.

toddnmd said:

Bloodroot Blades, Del Ealy, Randy Haas, Devin Thomas, J.M. Jones, Andy Billipp.

Tough to give suggestions without a price range.

Click to expand...

Plus Marko Tsourkan and Dave Martell

daveb said:

.... a maker here in US. Haburn, Ealy, HHH are names that immediately come to mind.

Click to expand...

I included turnaround time in the calculus.

Noodle Soup said:

Anyone know where Ken Onion is having his current OEM knives made? I'm guessing Alcas would be a good candidate. They are very secretive about their clients. I do know that Ken was not happy with Lamson at all.

Click to expand...

Read that the new designs, Sky and Cascade, are being made at the base of the mountains in Washington state. Sky from some supersteel made in PA. Quick look shows the same POS desgins as the Rain series, Santilly again??? - he hasn't learned a thing. That and the rest are all belly, serrations on top of blade, fat, impossible handles, etc, etc.

Don't think problem was with Lamson.

Base of the mountains in Washington state? That is kind of where I live. Is this something a certain Italian company and Mike B. is involved in? You guys are too hard on Ken. Trust me, I know from experience you won't get in the front door of a cutlery company just showing them something that looks like an American copy of just another Japanese knife. If your designs don't look a lot different than what is already out there, why should they bother paying you anything for the design?

Noodle - I've had to use his knives in cooking demos. I've had to sharpen (grinder) his knives for a charitable event. They suck. Unequivocally. A local culinary store now has the Rain knives at 75% off retail and still can't give them away. He took on Shun and lost. I've not used either of the new series (and not likely to have to) but they look the same and have the same nomenclature as the Rain series.

I've no experience with his field knives but they seem very well regarded. Maybe one day.

Back to American knives for this guy.

The Carter Muteki line might be a good option, stainless clad, sharp, desert ironwood handles though. And there's usually a fair amount available at any given time.

Quote Originally Posted by toddnmd View Post
Bloodroot Blades, Del Ealy, Randy Haas, Devin Thomas, J.M. Jones, Andy Billipp.

Tough to give suggestions without a price range.
Plus Marko Tsourkan and Dave Martell

And I'm surprised that until now no one has also mentioned Cris Anderson.

don't forget Don Nguyen and definitely Cris Anderson and Bill Burke and Butch Harner, Stephen Fowler

The poster likes the Dexter Connoisseur and has ordered his second one. Never used that particular knife a 10" on Amazon is 107.29. I am sure the blade can cut and be sharpened to a decent edge on his shapton pro's. It has a full heel bolster which over time don't work that well in production kitchens because correct heel sharpening is impossible. That blade is probably in the mid to high 50's in hardness.

No disrespect intended but you will not find many users here using Dexters. I prefer the old Forschners now Victorinox the steel is decent and they have no bolsters at all which is why cooks use them can keep their profiles after many trips to the stone. Of coarse they are Swiss knives.

As many have mentioned here if you must have American knives to get good ones you have to pay for it.

I think bang for the buck cannot beat Japanese knives. Not talking about Shuns either.

I am mainly interested in knives up to around 300 dollars. The Dexters will take a nice edge from the shapton pro's. I usually finish at 5000 and they shave arm hair. I do about an 18 degree bevel and thin them if I need to. I've been working like crazy this week but I will check out the suggestions you guys have posted.

The Dexter connoisseur are good knives, but I wish they were made out of better steel. I would compare them to Messermeister elite series. Not the best steel or grind, but they will get sharp and cut anything I've come across pretty well.

If you keep your eye on buy/sell/trade you will find something amazing eventually.

Under $300 on B/S/T got me a Marko practice gyuto and it is an absolute thing of beauty. Someone else mentioned a Carter Muteki, which would be an excellent option new in that price range.

Someone above mentioned Ontario Knife Company and their agilite series. I saw them elsewhere listed as Robeson, which as a straight razor user is kinda cool. I've been intrigued by those myself but have not tried. Profile looks particularly bad, I must say, and no idea about geometry.

Same time I think 14c28n has potential as a kitchen knife steel, though it appears they are only hardened to 57. Hope they keep trying, seems like there is potential there.

would'nt this be a better Dexter meeting all the current knife preference's listed here? Hertiage collection.

That's actually not a bad looking knife.

x2. Hard to tell how much belly it will have in a longer knife (guessing that is an 8 inch/ 210?). It looks a little odd where the tang goes into the handle though, like the tang is too tall. If the hardness is not too low that could be a decent knife for non-knuts, or a nice beater.