Santoku kitchen knife with smoked oak handle

Manufacturer: Kevin Kesselring, Kuro Schmiede, Rikon (ZH)

"I see my knives primarily as tools. Performance, ergonomics, sustainability and quality are paramount"

Material: 52100 Kling steel 

The 52100 blade steel used is a tough and edge-holding chrome-alloyed carbon steel which is very hard and sharp, but at the same time very easy to resharpen. This makes it a very user-friendly material. As chromium is added to the steel, a very stable patina is formed which protects the blade. 

The handle wood consists of selected smoked oak from Switzerland. The dark smoked oak has a lot of tannin, i.e. tannins, which protect the handle in a natural way.

Construction

A blued steel fitting is installed in the middle of the knife, allowing the knife's center of gravity to be shifted to the middle so that the knife lies evenly in the hand. The hammered surface structure of the knife counteracts the suction adhesion of cut material, so the cut pieces stick less to the blade. The blade tapers from approx. 4 mm at the handle to approx. 1 mm at the thin tip. This allows very fine work to be carried out with the tip, which opens up additional uses for the knife.

Kevin deliberately avoids unnecessary polishing of the blade. As a tool, the knife can also be scratched from time to time. The handle design developed by Kevin is based on the Hanmaru Rokkaku shape, which combines grippy edges and curves. It automatically guides the hand towards the pinch grip, the ideal hand position for precise and fast work. As sustainability is important to Kevin, he uses renewable charcoal instead of propane gas for the forge fire, for example.