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Meet me at the Sydney Knife Show on 12/13 August 2024

How do I go about ordering a Custom Knife?


While I make some stock items that you can purchase straight away through this website, most of the knives I make are custom orders. I really enjoy creating kitchen tools that reflect the ideas and material preferences of my customers and like to include them in the process and journey as much as possible.

To have a knife made for you typically begins with you giving me as much information as possible about what it is that you are after. Size, style, materials, intended purpose, left or right handed, size of hands, etc... The more the better. From there I can give you a quote and a rough timeline and if you agree to those, we'll lock it in. I generally require a 50% deposit prior to commencing the work on your knife with the final payment due before shipping. Once I start to work on your knife, I will send you updates and images as I go along.

'So, how much does one of your knives cost?" I get asked a lot. The answer depends on a variety of factors (similar to the length of a piece of string, really). Apart from the materials and the consumables (particularly the abrasives) it mostly comes down to time. A longer knife takes more time to forge, grind and finish as compared to a shorter knife. A damascus knife takes a lot more time than a mono steel knife in the exact same shape since I generally spend an extra day making the steel. Working with Tungsten steel involves a more complex and energy and time intensive heat treatment protocol and grinding steel at such high hardness and wear resistance leaves a big dint in the abrasives stash... You get the idea.

Over the years I was able to come up with a formula that reflects all of these parameters.

The baseline cost for a High Carbon Mono Steel (like 52100) is AU$ 120/inch blade length.

To the base price add 50-60% for High Carbon Damascus (depending on complexity of the pattern and more for mosaic damascus)

To the base price add 25% for a San Mai (3 layers) or 30% for a Go Mai (5 layers).

To the base price add 55% for a San Mai or 60% for a Go Mai with Tungsten Steel core. This is due to cost of the material, the more complex (and expensive) heat treatment and the increase in abrasives cost.

There may be a surcharge when using very rare or exotic timber for the handles due to the cost incurred to me.

Further to this the actual shipping costs will be added unless clearly stated otherwise.

 

Examples:

6" Petty in a Mono Steel would be 6x120=720

8" Chef in (less complex) Damascus would be (8x120)x1.5=(960)x1.5=1440

9" Chef in Go Mai with Tungsten Core would be [(9x120)x1.6]+[(9x120)x0.6] =1728+648 = 2376 (rounded to 2350)

9" Chef with (more complex) Damascus cladding over Tungsten Steel core would be [(9x120)x1.55]+[(9x120)x0.6] = 1674+648 = 2322 (rounded to 2300)

Hope this helps and answers some questions.

Disclaimer: all prices are subject to change and may increase slightly due to increased material cost and progress on the maker's skill