IN Deptford, Southeast London, Holly Loftus is among 10 and 15 knives per month. The lowest cost of these things may have 160 pounds, while the dear may return you up to 580 pounds. What do you get your money if you are seriously sprayed? Lovtos, who was born in Ireland and is soft and gently pronounced, takes her time with this question. “It is about the time you spent in combining different steel,” she said. “Some knives include a layer technique – people know that it is Damascus steel – which creates a pattern on the blade. It takes a long time. There is a lot of folding, cutting and uprooting.”
This knife is likely to be with its owner for a good time – perhaps forever. “I am lucky,” continues. “People who buy knives have a strong feeling of what they are getting. This will not be the same ready -made knife from the factory. They know that they will take care of it.”
Loftus did not start to be a knife maker; She used to do community work. But then I talked to someone in the knife. “Once I realized that it could be done by hand, there was something that dominated it: I stumbled in my mind, although I did not do anything at all. I was fascinated. I spent a long time reading about it, and in the end I decided to want to adhere to. Steel, and as soon as the plastic was, moved it with your body and the hammer … that was amazing.”
You did not look back. “I found a formulation in London [Blenheim Forge – of which, more later] She trained with them for three years, and learned to make chef knives. Is she the only woman who is doing this type of work now? professionally,She says wisely.
Loftus uses steel not only from Germany and Japan, but also from Sheffield, my city and a city that was famous all over the world in table tools. Her knives are made of cherries, downs and wio, and each one is unique. But if it is beautiful, then they also need this a jobTo be functional to the highest degree. “Known knives at a moment, because cooking has become easier. If you don’t cook, you never need a nice knife; if you do so, one of the difference occurs all the difference. Many people think they are useless in cutting and clearing, but they only have sharp knives. Owning one remains sharp and facilitates changing everything.” Nevertheless, buyers must be careful of companies that are in fact -hand their knives in fact, they simply stick to an unknown blade. “Transparency is important,” says Lovitos. “I know what steel factories I support, and all the wood I use almost comes from falling or falling trees in London.”
What will you say to someone who seeks to buy a new knife, and panic in this choice? “Think about what you cook, and think about the type of investment you want to do. It can be any sharp knife, but how much time remains like this.
What is the best way to sharpen a knife? “I am using Japanese stones. But for people at home, the best thing is to sharpen the ceramic, which resembles steel, only the material is less aggressive. It takes less than your knife, so you will have a longer period.” I think about my naughty grandmother knives, now in my kitchen, the middle sections are about to disappear thanks to the continuous sharpening of the old steel. My Odyssey seems to have turned into more stages than expected.
Last January, I reached a place for admission. There was no escape from it: my scaches were frank, and some were strengthened in other ways as well. One had a handle that was missing with Rahm. Another has been lost in an unaccounted manner. I hate waste, but he was fine. I used to own them for 30 years. It is time to spend some money.
In the era of her first apartment, she went to John Louis and bought a selection of Sabatier, a name I knew from my father’s kitchens. easy! No one seems to be very interested in knives after that, not to mention their makers as male chefs do now. He wrote about the skills of the knife, and the chapters that learned them, no one heard. The option was limited, even for those who had money utensils, and online shopping has not been invented.
But my country, how things changed. You can spend months of research, and are still not specific. European or Japanese? The factory is made or manual? How many different shapes and patterns do you need? I just exaggerate only when I say money can be spent on the kitchen blade now almost unlimited. Even John Lewis stores a Japanese-Japu Keful knife by Mabi with a cod that includes “101 Damascus Flower Design”, and a Pershwood-leak handle at a price of 459 pounds sterling (a reader, I haven’t bought it).
In myself, I start in this piece as a way to sort things in my head, and Loftus is the first person to talk to, on the phone from Ireland: I feel very afraid of the world of muscles, I want to release my stupid questions on a woman, not a man. “This is logical,” she says, when I admit it. “I have many followers of men on social media.”
But with the spread of things, the world of the knife is not very scary. When I send an email to James Ross Harris at Blenheim Forge to ask if I can visit him in Beckham, he responds immediately. He is happy with the presence of visitors – and he is. People often call their knives Piece in New York Times This is called Blaneheim, a destination in the highest London, and bold American tourists sometimes swing.
Blenheim Forge, which was established in 2014, under the Pictorian Rail Arc de Tikat, talks to my roots (I am ready when you are close to certain types of machines). Like Loftus, Ross Harris’s profession was also some accidents. He and John Warshawski used to spend weekends in two DIY projects in their joint garden in southern London. One of these projects was a formulation, made of fire bricks and a bomb of leaves, and made them a drug addict.
Ross Harris trained as a blacksmith, working under this particular arc when it was rented by another work. He used to work mostly on architectural projects, but in the evening he tried. “I was not in the knives greatly before I made one. You realize the number of existing elements: different types of steel, personal files and various engineering.” When his heads decided to transfer the site, he and Warshawsky got the bow for themselves (and another friend, Richard Warner later joined them, joined them, and since then, the company has grown and slept. Nowadays, it is ideal financial logical to spend 40,000 pounds on five tons of steel: they know they will use it.
What distinguishes Blenheim Forge? The answer is: everything, from the steel used (“it’s really truly clean”), to the handles (only the original solid wood), to the sharpening (each one is sharpened individually on a Japanese stone, then wanders in the skin). Chefs I love them, and it is not difficult to know the reason. When Ross Harris appears to me, my fingers are connected: sudden taste. They cost hundreds of pounds, but I am not young: you can see me.
My eyes are on a little baking knife – every week, Forge blades belong to me to work on special projects – which for a long period, especially: there is no longer a shaken water in for me house. However, the most exciting for all is the news that Blenheim works with the only remaining Forge in Sheffield – Drop Forging uses hydraulic pressure to pressure the metal, instead of hammer – with the aim of producing a set of meat slices. Oh oh. This is my dream. I remember that Drop Forge, which works with Victorian water, used to visit it on school trips. I am sending an email to me.
If you are not on the market for a hand -made knife, there is of course a medium way. You can buy an expensive knife made of the factory instead, very functional and beautifully designed. “We use ice stiffness to our knives,” says Corin Milor, the designer who is now running his father’s work, David Milor. “The heat treatment begins at 1200 degrees [celsius]Then it decreases to room temperature, then the blades – Japanese – are placed in liquid nitrogen and cooling. It makes the edge last a little longer. “
The design of the knives is not clear to him: the designs of the famous table tools are still in production. But the black kitchen knives in Corin, which took four years to perfection, are now among the best -selling books for the company. In appearance, he deliberately told me to the classic Sabatier design, but they are also reassuring and have a certain balance in the hand: “They need to perform comfortably. Forgery extends inside the resin handle, then there is a large mass of metal at the bottom.
Perhaps you were wondering what you finally decided after all these conversations. But the truth is that I am not there. While I wait for the Blenheim Forge Sheffield, and perhaps for a bread knife, I also buy what is useful and affordable. I am loyal to David Milor, another son of Chevild, and he has already treated myself with two korin knives, with their single elegant and form that reminds me of the best silver table wiped with my mother for my mother: one is a cook knife, and the other is a cut knife, and I love them (I paid more than 100 pounds for both). For speed, and because they are cheerful – their handles orange and yellow – I also bought some Victorinox peeling knives at reasonable prices, which are great for peeling fruit and other things, and can go in the dishwasher.
There is no doubt that more will arrive soon; My fingers are still confused, not because I had an accident during chicken shelves. However, in the meantime, I know now that Luvitos was right: it is very good to have a sharp sharp knives. When I leave my office at the end of the day, it accompanies a new ease and I go to the kitchen. What can I bloom tonight, how carefully?
