1- The Maker
Harbeer is a knifemaker based in Clarkdale, Arizona. He was born in England and retains citizenship to this day; he also lived a few years in Toronto when he was younger, and still has Canadian citizenship as well. His girlfriend lives in Paris, where he set up a smaller shop to keep work going whenever he goes there. He’s around here with us on KKF, and you can find knives he has for sale as well as information about his work right HERE.
For Harbeer, knifemaking is a passion and a choice to prioritize freedom over income. He’ll usually work 6+ days a week, make/sell 8-12 knives per month, and his pricing is more than fair towards the excellent work he does. To him the deepest satisfaction that lies into this is the customer’s, which basically also ensures him a great rate of repeated business and general mouth to ear appreciation for the positive experience he provides. In fact, his main reason not to also use a web storefront to sell his production is that he would rather establish a connection with each of his customers, for each of his knives.
In my own experience working with him, he is an honest and straightforward maker that listens to what the customer wants and has it at heart, while his feedback is prompt and down to business, which greatly helps to settle things down and get a project going. What this means is you can totally trust him that, while he will pointedly set the limits that work for him, all along the way he will pay heed to what was said. With the timeframe set upon initial agreement, he still maintains a steady communication. I never felt the need, at any point, to query for updates on the project.
To make a living with this business, Harbeer leads a very simple life with as few expenses as he can get away with. Despite having two graduate degrees with one an executive MBA, he told me he “runs his shop finances on the back of a napkin”. It tells of a man that likes to keep focus with what he loves to do, and thus leads his independent career with very little involvement administrating it, calculating only a general monthly performance as to ensure he can continue doing what he loves – and then going straight back to the next projects waiting in the shop.
As a bladesmith, Harbeer started by making utility hunter blades and neck knives before making kitchen knives, while he also learned to make friction folders and slipjoint folders, the latter learned with Mike Vagino. Since he started full time in January 2018, the bulk of his work is with kitchen knives. He will either work through forging and grinding or simple stock removal, depending on the steel, customer’s preferences and budget, or simply what suits the project best. He is strongly committed to steels and proven treatments that ensures him a tough product with ease of sharpening.
Where one should probably address Harbeer directly for up-to-date info and range of adaptability (for example he recently started testing HT on 9 samples of @Larrin –designed Magna Cut blades), here’s a few steels he is used to work with extensively:
26c3: either mono, SS clad or wrought iron clad – usually 62-63HRC.
A2: excellent cost-oriented option – usually 63-64HRC.
Z-Wear: learned with his friend Tim Wright, plate quench and cryo – usually 62-63HRC.
AEB-L: learned with Tim Wright also, plate quench and cryo – usually 61-62 HRC.
Hitachi White #1 SS Clad: learned with Murray Carter, water quench + flash temper – usually 63-64HRC.
Suminagashi Takefu White steel: learned with Carter too, oil quench + flash temper – usually 63-64HRC.
To see a bit of him at work, you can have a look at his own upload on YouTube, from which I borrowed some emblematic moments for the pictures in this section:
Harbeer knew of my habit in reviewing knives, which to him amounted to one thing only: even where he has little time to spare, he graciously took some still answering my questions about his ops – more than I could honestly hope for. Moreover, he was truly not concerned at any time with how and to what extent I would use or not the information he provided me with. He only asked that I would be perfectly honest when reviewing the knife.
Through these exchanges, my respect for Harbeer only grew stronger as I got to understand more and more about the simplicity that defines him and the focus that drives him, and as a token of my respect, this review will be as honest and dedicated as he stands up to be. But more important to me still is this presentation, which I’m hoping at least can do him justice.
Where he’ll openly admit that, on top of the impossible schedules, there’s not much money to be made where he stands, I also detected in his answers some reluctance to change anything about his ways for reasons I suspect of personal ethics. Just as much as he’s not interested to run the calculator on every aspect of his work as long as the bulk adds up for him, Harbeer wants people to experience great knives, and thus he likes to say that he makes “a humble knife for a humble price”. On his business card, there’s the mention “for use”: it’s a matter of importance to Harbeer that his work is targeted for the end user rather than the collector. No worries: I’m pretty sure he’s open to the fact that us, KKF customers, can’t seem to have one without the other.
Harbeer is a knifemaker based in Clarkdale, Arizona. He was born in England and retains citizenship to this day; he also lived a few years in Toronto when he was younger, and still has Canadian citizenship as well. His girlfriend lives in Paris, where he set up a smaller shop to keep work going whenever he goes there. He’s around here with us on KKF, and you can find knives he has for sale as well as information about his work right HERE.
For Harbeer, knifemaking is a passion and a choice to prioritize freedom over income. He’ll usually work 6+ days a week, make/sell 8-12 knives per month, and his pricing is more than fair towards the excellent work he does. To him the deepest satisfaction that lies into this is the customer’s, which basically also ensures him a great rate of repeated business and general mouth to ear appreciation for the positive experience he provides. In fact, his main reason not to also use a web storefront to sell his production is that he would rather establish a connection with each of his customers, for each of his knives.
In my own experience working with him, he is an honest and straightforward maker that listens to what the customer wants and has it at heart, while his feedback is prompt and down to business, which greatly helps to settle things down and get a project going. What this means is you can totally trust him that, while he will pointedly set the limits that work for him, all along the way he will pay heed to what was said. With the timeframe set upon initial agreement, he still maintains a steady communication. I never felt the need, at any point, to query for updates on the project.
To make a living with this business, Harbeer leads a very simple life with as few expenses as he can get away with. Despite having two graduate degrees with one an executive MBA, he told me he “runs his shop finances on the back of a napkin”. It tells of a man that likes to keep focus with what he loves to do, and thus leads his independent career with very little involvement administrating it, calculating only a general monthly performance as to ensure he can continue doing what he loves – and then going straight back to the next projects waiting in the shop.
As a bladesmith, Harbeer started by making utility hunter blades and neck knives before making kitchen knives, while he also learned to make friction folders and slipjoint folders, the latter learned with Mike Vagino. Since he started full time in January 2018, the bulk of his work is with kitchen knives. He will either work through forging and grinding or simple stock removal, depending on the steel, customer’s preferences and budget, or simply what suits the project best. He is strongly committed to steels and proven treatments that ensures him a tough product with ease of sharpening.
Where one should probably address Harbeer directly for up-to-date info and range of adaptability (for example he recently started testing HT on 9 samples of @Larrin –designed Magna Cut blades), here’s a few steels he is used to work with extensively:
26c3: either mono, SS clad or wrought iron clad – usually 62-63HRC.
A2: excellent cost-oriented option – usually 63-64HRC.
Z-Wear: learned with his friend Tim Wright, plate quench and cryo – usually 62-63HRC.
AEB-L: learned with Tim Wright also, plate quench and cryo – usually 61-62 HRC.
Hitachi White #1 SS Clad: learned with Murray Carter, water quench + flash temper – usually 63-64HRC.
Suminagashi Takefu White steel: learned with Carter too, oil quench + flash temper – usually 63-64HRC.
To see a bit of him at work, you can have a look at his own upload on YouTube, from which I borrowed some emblematic moments for the pictures in this section:
Harbeer knew of my habit in reviewing knives, which to him amounted to one thing only: even where he has little time to spare, he graciously took some still answering my questions about his ops – more than I could honestly hope for. Moreover, he was truly not concerned at any time with how and to what extent I would use or not the information he provided me with. He only asked that I would be perfectly honest when reviewing the knife.
Through these exchanges, my respect for Harbeer only grew stronger as I got to understand more and more about the simplicity that defines him and the focus that drives him, and as a token of my respect, this review will be as honest and dedicated as he stands up to be. But more important to me still is this presentation, which I’m hoping at least can do him justice.
Where he’ll openly admit that, on top of the impossible schedules, there’s not much money to be made where he stands, I also detected in his answers some reluctance to change anything about his ways for reasons I suspect of personal ethics. Just as much as he’s not interested to run the calculator on every aspect of his work as long as the bulk adds up for him, Harbeer wants people to experience great knives, and thus he likes to say that he makes “a humble knife for a humble price”. On his business card, there’s the mention “for use”: it’s a matter of importance to Harbeer that his work is targeted for the end user rather than the collector. No worries: I’m pretty sure he’s open to the fact that us, KKF customers, can’t seem to have one without the other.
