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Your Last Knife

New Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2022
Messages
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Location
Australia
Hi all.

My little logo is now popping up in the top of the page, so I thought I should come and say hello!

My name is Colum, and I have a little business in my backyard (Adelaide, Australia) making these:
PXL_20220629_021523836.jpg


Or more specifically I just make the handles. I have a factory in China that make the blades to my exact specs. So I say what steel I want, the shape, bevel, hardness, thickness, and all those fun details, and they'll make up my ideal blades.

I know the second a lot of you see China, you're going to immediately think that's crap, and there is good cause for that. I have been sent some rubbish from there, had some suppliers that started out good, then quality drops, and I've dropped them too. But I've narrowed down to some very good blade makers there, and the quality is top notch, I hardness test all the blades, re acid etch them to make sure they aren't trying to laser on patterns. I'm also a chef by trade and know my blades well.

There are two types of steel I use, my standard is VG10:
IMG_20210317_140329.jpg

It's a standard VG10 steel, rockwell 60-62. While I was still cheffing, this steel could go for 6 months of intensive use (5+ hours of solid cutting for a day) without needing to hit a stone with it, just basic honing the edge, and occasional diamond steeling it.

Recently though, I've put out a premium range of R2 powdered steel:
20220429_104625.jpg

I always figured if I was going to have a premium range of knives, it needed to be noticeably better. I'd trialled Japanese made blades, and in use I couldn't tell any difference from my current range, but then I trialled the powdered steel, and it was so much better. This steel is imported from Japan into China, then they do all the work on it. The HCR is 62-64, the edge retention is just amazing, my wife can't even seem to blunt them. Each one of the blades has a hollow grind down the center to give better food, and reduce weight a little more. I love this steel.

But a little on what I do.

I make the handles. I figure two people aren't going to like the same woods and colours, and that's a good thing. So I give the customers full control. I've got a design your own page:
https://www.yourlastknife.com/products/design
People can select the blade they'd like, then the wood, and the colour. Or just wood, or just colour, and I'll make up exactly what they'd like:
20220429_104057.jpg


I'm at somewhere over 5000 knives made up now (honestly lost count a while ago, but going off order numbers), so I've gotten very good at the handles now. It took me a while to find the finish on the handles I liked, but the one I'm using now is a 2pac clear. The sort of stuff used on car finishes. So it's completely water repellant, needs no oiling or maintenance.I want them to look just as good in 5 years as they day they are bought.

I'm pretty active on social media too, usually waffling away in my stories on insta and facebook and showing the process:
www.instagram.com/your.last.knife
www.facebook.com/yourlastknife

I've got reviews on my facebook page I can't alter or change, if you want to check them out :)

If you've got any questions, ask away. But otherwise, hi :)
 
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