One of our most sought after editions, the Blenheim Forge bread knife.
The only serrated knife we make features a lovely rippled Olive Ash handle, and will come with a matching hand crafted bread board.
This is a fairly long and very robust blade with wide serrations, and almost no flex. There’s many factors that make up the geometry of a serrated edge, like the number of teeth and the diameter of the gap between them, the angle that they are pointing, as well as the angle between the bevel and the serrations. It turns out that serrations that are good for some tasks are really bad at others, so a blade that feels great on a crusty loaf completely destroys a brioche. Without going into the technicalities, the goal was a blade that would be just robust enough to tackle a hardy sourdough while being fine enough to fly through your other sandwich ingredients, with serrations that have an aggressive bite on the crust but cause minimal damage to your crumb.
With the steel, the obvious choice was a high carbon Swedish spring steel. This material was developed for use in industrial cutting tools and bandsaw blades so it is perfect for a robust serrated edge. On these bread knives, Jon was trying for a cohesive aesthetic, so the Damascus pattern has undulations and hairpin turns that echo the teeth and gullets on the precision cut scalloped edge. The rippled grain of the handle was selected to complement this look.
Jon thoroughly enjoys planning and creating these patterns in Damascus steel. Unfortunately, there isn’t any strong evidence that Damascus steel performs any better than an equivalent mono-steel. This is why we offer the mono-steel version of these blades which will be identical in every practical sense. Both Damascus and mono steel Bread Knife come with a beautiful bread board made by Rachel from Elston Furniture. The board is made of Ash and fumed oak to compliment the handle of the knife. The board construction uses a very traditional joint, aptly named a ‘breadboard end’. This technique allows the wood to expand and contract over time without splitting. The fumed oak ends hold the board flat, whilst rippled sycamore ‘drawbores’ hold the joint together under tension.
Dimensions
*Blade length – 255mm
*Overall length – 405mm
*Blade thickness at the spine – 3mm
*Blade Depth – 33mm
Materials
*Damascus Bread Knife – Different high carbon steels in varying densities
*Mono steel Bread Knife – Swedish high carbon steel
*Handle – Olive Ash
*Bread board – Olive Ash and Fumed Oak
The BBQ set includes a Boning knife, a Cleaver, a Scimitar and a hand forged fork – the perfect set of knives for cooking outdoors over a fire. Using our 100 year old rolling mill we’ve created a laminate of Carbon steel clad with soft steel and nickel. This results in tough blades that will take an extremely sharp edge. We’ve carefully forged a rippled texture into the blades which is complemented by the rippled oak handle scales. Each set comes with a hand crafted canvas case by local leatherworker Owen Leather.
Cleaver – Great for breaking down joints of meat or simply for portioning chicken straight off the barbecue. We’ve also found it to be very useful for preparing seafood; the strong convex grind makes it perfect for taking apart crab and lobster, and the weighty curved spine is great for cracking shells and claws.
*Blade length – 155mm
*Overall length – 275mm
*Blade Depth – 100mm
*Blade thickness at the handle – 4.5mm
Scimitar – Also known as a Butcher’s steak knife, or breaking knife. These are perfect for meat slicing, mincing, and carving. The unique shape is designed to shift the balance point towards the top of the blade in order to assist with butchery tasks. The curved profile at the top of the blade is helpful in getting between skin, fat, bone and meat, while the long flat edge guarantees a clean cut in a single motion.
*Blade length – 330mm
*Overall length – 440mm
*Blade depth – 45mm
*Blade thickness at the handle – 3mm
Boning knife – Designed to be held in a number of ways – pinch, standard and dagger grip, an extremely versatile blade perfect for a number of butchery tasks. The grind is slightly convex with a robust edge that can easily be guided around the bone.
*Blade length – 145mm
*Overall length – 260mm
*Blade depth – 32mm
*Blade thickness at the handle – 3mm
Materials
*Blades – High carbon steel, Mild steel and Nickel
*Fork – Carbon steel
*Handles – Stabilised rippled Oak
*Case – 18oz Cotton Canvas
Arch 228-229, Blenheim Grove, London SE15 4QL
