Hand Forged Chef Knife, 6 Inch Blade with Walnut Handle

Half an onion. Two mushrooms. A stick of celery and a handful of parsley. Most of what happens on a home board is little work, and a big blade makes a production of it. This one is 6 inches of 1095 high carbon with a walnut handle. People tend to buy it second, after the big one, and then it lives on the counter.

Specification

The blade

1095 is plain high carbon steel with nothing clever in it, which is the point. The spine stays dark from the fire and the bevel is taken up bright, so the blade reads as two tones from the side. The shape is a chef knife, flat at the heel and lifting into a curve toward the tip. That curve lets the edge rock on a board instead of chopping straight down, and six inches turns inside a small space. The steel greys as you use it. It spots if it goes away wet.

The handle

Walnut sits mid weight and mid hard, and it has been on kitchen handles a long time. It takes an oil finish and warms fast in the hand. The tang is full, three brass pins holding the scales onto it, so no glue joint does the work after a year of washing up. The handle measures 5 inches, longer than you might expect against a 6 inch blade. Your whole hand fits, and the balance falls back where a short blade wants it.

The leather blade cover

The cover is vegetable tanned leather, hand stitched, cut to this blade's own outline. A welt goes into the seam, a strip of leather holding the thread in a channel away from the edge. The face carries a basket weave stamped into wet hide by hand. It sits over the blade with the handle left standing out, so the knife travels in a drawer or a roll without finding a knuckle. No belt about it.

Who it suits

This is for cooking for two or three where the counter is already full.

• Anyone whose board is smaller than a cabinet door
• Cooks with small hands who find an 8 inch heavy
• Buyers adding a second chef knife
• People who like plain steel over pattern

What comes in the box

• The 6 inch chef knife on walnut
• The stamped basket weave leather blade cover
• A care card
• Free sharpening whenever you send it back

Every piece is different

Walnut comes off a tree, so grain runs pale in one handle and near chocolate in the next. The forge line along the spine falls where the fire and the hammer left it, never twice in the same place. Expect the shape you see and your own version of the colour.

Looking after it

Wash by hand and dry it before you put it down. Water left on plain carbon steel leaves a mark you rub off later. Wipe a thin film of food safe mineral oil over it before the drawer. Boards want to be wood or plastic. When it stops biting, a whetstone at about 20 degrees per side brings it back, then a few passes on a strop. Our care and sharpening page goes further.

Put a name on it

Engraving runs 20 dollars per blade and it is a box you tick on this page. About 30 characters is the working limit, so think a name, or a name and a year. We mock it up and send you the image first. Once approved, add 3 to 5 business days. Ten blades or more and we stop charging. Details on the engraving page.

Questions buyers ask

Is 6 inches enough for a main knife? For most home cooking, yes. It runs short at a big squash, where length gets you across in one go.

Why do people buy this one second? The 8 inch looks like the serious purchase. Then the small one fits the actual cooking, and it stops going back in the drawer.

What does the curve at the tip do? It lets you hold the point down and lift the heel, rolling the edge through a cut. A flat edge chops instead.

Will it rust? Plain carbon steel will if you let it. Dry it, oil it, and it turns grey rather than orange. It goes in a dishwasher at no point.

Is it just a large paring knife? No. There is height under the handle for knuckle room, so this one belongs on a board.

When will it arrive? Most US orders arrive in 5 to 7 business days.

The same shape sized up is the 8 inch chef knife with buffalo horn and brass, and smaller jobs go to the kitchen utility knife on green micarta. Both sit in chef knives, the plain steel in 1095 high carbon steel, everything else in kitchen knives.