Hand Forged Kitchen Utility Knife, Green Micarta Handle

Half a lemon, a shallot, a wedge of cheese, a sandwich that wants cutting in two. None of it is worth the big knife and none of it fits a paring blade. That gap is why this one exists. The blade is 6 inches of 1095 high carbon, tall and straight sided, and the scales are green canvas micarta. It lives on the counter.

Specification

The blade

1095 high carbon, spine left dark where the fire had it, bevel taken up bright. Nothing is etched into it. The blade is tall for its length and the sides run straight, so your knuckles clear the board instead of dragging along it. Only the front couple of inches curve, and that shallow belly trims round a rib or takes the top off a pepper. Behind it you have a long flat edge on a short knife. Carbon steel goes grey as a patina builds, and it spots if left wet.

The handle

Canvas micarta is cloth soaked in resin and cured hard. The green runs through the block instead of sitting on the surface, so a scuff does not show pale underneath. It grips when your hand is wet, which is most of the time beside a sink. The tang is full and reaches the butt with three brass pins driven through it. The handle is 5 inches, so the tool you pick up forty times a day does not feel like a stranger.

The leather blade cover

Vegetable tanned leather, stitched by hand around this blade's own shape, so nothing shifts inside it. A welt runs in the seam, a strip of leather giving the thread a channel where the edge cannot find it. The face carries a stamped basket weave, pressed in while the hide was damp. It goes over the steel and no further. The handle stays in the open, which is what you want reaching into a drawer or a rolled kit.

Who it suits

Most buyers own a chef knife and a paring knife already, and keep reaching past both.

• Anyone doing ten small jobs before dinner starts
• Cooks with a narrow counter
• Buyers who want plain steel and no pattern
• People who like a knife that lives on the side

What comes in the box

• The 6 inch utility knife
• The stamped basket weave leather blade cover
• A care card
• Free sharpening for life

Every piece is different

Micarta is cloth, and the cloth surfaces once sanding cuts into it, so the green comes out mottled a different way on every set of scales. The forged spine goes dark wherever the fire sat. Brass pins are filed flush one at a time. What the photograph shows is a model.

Looking after it

Wash it in the sink and dry it before you set it down. This one gets rinsed and abandoned in the rack, and that is where orange spotting starts. Wipe food safe mineral oil across both faces before it goes in the drawer. Cut on wood or plastic. A whetstone at roughly 20 degrees per side and a strop afterwards keeps the edge going. Our care and sharpening page has the detail.

Put a name on it

Engraving costs 20 dollars per blade and you tick it on this page. About 30 characters fits, so a name and a year. A proof image comes over first and nothing runs until you approve it. Budget another 3 to 5 business days on the order. Order 10 or more and we do not charge. The engraving page spells it out.

Questions buyers ask

What is a utility knife actually for? The jobs too big for a paring blade and too small to justify a chef knife. That is most of a kitchen.

Do I still need a chef knife? Facing a squash or a tray of onions, yes. This one handles everything either side of that.

Why tall and straight sided? Height keeps your hand off the board. The straight run gives a flat edge on a short blade, and the curve up front trims.

Will it rust? It can. 1095 is carbon steel, so dry it after washing and keep a film of oil on it. A dishwasher would ruin it, so it never sees one.

Why no pattern on this one? An etch would not change the cut.

What is the wait? Most US orders arrive in 5 to 7 business days.

If you would rather have a curve under your hand, the 6 inch chef knife in walnut is the same length with a rocking edge, and for work done in the air there is the Damascus paring knife on camel bone. This one sits with the board knives in kitchen knives, plain steel under 1095 high carbon steel, the lot in every knife we make.