If you take cooking seriously, then you will appreciate the Cut Brooklyn handmade kitchen knives. What chefs and cooking enthusiasts say about the importance of a good knife, I learned at the age of twelve from my mother.
I grew up with a mother who never dreamed of buying pre-made, processed food but made everything herself: from mayonnaise and jam to preserves and sauces. Everything we ate was prepared from scratch. She also had very strict rules about working in the kitchen and I have to admit that she knew what she was doing. One of the first things I learned when working with her in the kitchen was the importance of knives.
She had an assortment of premium knives, each one dedicated to specific cutting tasks and all of them extremely sharp. She taught me how to choose the perfectly balanced knife, how to use them and take care of them and ever since I have become a “knife groupie”.
Joel Bukiewicz is the knife master of Gowanus Brooklyn. He crafts his premium knives by hand and they are built to last a lifetime. Joel believes that by handcrafting the knives, continually checking the feel and balance of the piece and if need be correcting the lines along the way he produces perfectly balanced knives that have a feeling of wholeness and integrity.
He doesn’t use templates, instead he uses a knife from the last batch he made to draw the shape of the new blank on the steel and then goes on to shape it according to how he pictures it in his mind. His goal is that each knife will be the best knife he’s ever made. Forming the perfect shape takes him about 15 hours. The unsharpened blade is sent for treatment to harden the steel, after which Joel hand grinds the precise convex edge and then custom sculpts the handle.
Joel only uses American-made materials, the hardness of his knives is measured at 62 Rockwel with no chipping issues (most carbon steel knives measure at 55 Rockwell) the handles are glass laminate and secured with hand-made mosaic pins. The knives are not cheap, prices range from $200 and up, but if you take good care of your knife it should last you a lifetime, and Bukiewicz services the knives for free. As they are personally hand-made by him, there is a long waiting list for the knives.
They also advertise pieces that have been finished and are on sale, so it’s worthwhile checking the purchase page on his site.
Brooklyn Cut knives are a joy to work with and in addition are beautiful to look at and in my experience, nothing can compare to the feel of working with a good knife that sits perfectly balanced in your hand and does exactly what you want it to do.
I was lucky enough to purchase one of Joel’s knives and not only is it a lovely piece of crafting, it’s a great working knife.
It’s my go-to fruit and green vegetable knife. The packaging, service time, tracking and a 2 page letter that says hello with all the knife’s details, made for a special buying experience.