Each of the three cheese knives in this set is made with forged stainless steel, clad in solid brass with hidden brass rivets. The set includes a chisel for hard cheeses, a knife for medium and soft cheeses, and a cheese fork. Handmade waxed-canvas knife rolls are available as an add-on to keep the set organized and make stowing and presenting convenient.
Kiran Chapman was born and raised in New York City, and moved to Maine in 2018 to learn wooden boat building. He became fascinated by blacksmithing after learning the trade from a local knife maker, and went on to work for Wick’s Forge, a third-generation blacksmith shop. Kiran strives to make long-lasting objects that channel the traditional blacksmithing techniques He's learned through a unified aesthetic, creating functional and accessible products.
Care:
Any object that needs to hold a sharp edge, such as Chef's and Oyster Knives, requires heat treating. This process changes the structural composition of the steel, resulting in a much harder material that can be sharpened and resist wear. The first stage of heat treating is normalization: heating the object to a critical temperature and letting it cool to room temperature. This creates a uniform micro-structure and prepares the knife for hardening. The next step is quenching: heating the blade to a bright red color and cooling it quickly in oil. After quenching, the knife is very hard, but also quite brittle and delicate. Tempering, the final step of heat treating, seeks to resolve this. By holding the knife at a low temperature for an extended period of time, the hardness and brittleness both decrease, resulting in a blade that is hard enough to stay sharp, but soft enough to be durable and resist cracking.