Don’t touch my blade!

All you need is food – and sharp knives

There are many stories about chefs and their knives. One thing that is for sure come hell or high water: they are inseparable. Try to use one of their knives without asking and you are never eating at their table again. Never again. Don’t even try to ask for permission to use one of them. You may, but the answer is in 999 of a thousand times a decisive ‘no’. Believe you me.

I grew up in a family of chefs. My father was a chef, my brother in law is a chef, 2 nephews are chefs. So again – just believe me. You might now understand that my gene pooI contains among a shot of Rhythm & Blues anything from chillies to cardamom and from sea salt to chicken stock. And that explains that I have learned very early about the importance of a set of sharp kitchen knives to be used in the process of creating culinary dreams. Pasta. Sorry. Basta!

The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.

Julia Child

… cool, Julia … and a couple of sharp knives, of course! There are people who live the illusion that they own proper kitchen knives. This category of kitchen warriors has knives that I would categorise as “handles with a piece of blunt metal attached”. Useless. Then I know people who have mediocre knives in their arsenal – why spend a thousand or more for a knife when you can get a set of five for 300 bucks? Answer: Serious cooks own serious tools. And they do not come in cheap.

And then there’s me – I discovered the absolute fascination of creating my own knives (very renaissance). Transforming a piece of steel into something you cannot buy for any money in the world. A unique piece of art to be created for one purpose: to be used in my kitchen as my personal blade of glory.

Enter Hylton Rutherford

The first time I heard about Hylton and Rutherford Forge in Fourways, Johannesburg was about 2 years ago. Like so many other random stuff he appeared in-between some of my Facebook posts totally out of nowhere. Destiny? What? A bladesmith and blacksmith working and living in my hood – that was unheard of. But that sounded very, very in interesting.

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So I decided to become fluent in topics like bladesmith metallurgy and knife steel selection, thermal cycling and the forging process plus taking a few lessons in knife function and terminology to top it off. Supa dupa Rock’n’Roll, baby!

A very, very hot and sensual experience

Na, that is of course just partially true. This is just the academic description of “I want to do my own knife!”; sweat a bit in the process and then run home and cut a thick ribeye steak with my new tool.

So with a very good friend in tow, I rocked up at Hylton’s lair and spent two days working with my Sensei, creating something so unique like my very own version of a Serbian chef’s knife. It was outlandish.

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The heat, the physical shaping of the blade and the experience of a Land Rover spring (!) being transformed into a gastronomical super tool – priceless. Try it! Find out whether there is a forge near you. Look for a person like Hylton.

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An adventure of a lifetime awaits you. Chef’s knife, sword, Zulu spear, hunter’s knives – you name it, you craft it! But beware, it’s addictive like tattoos – now that’s another story for another day.

PS: Don’t ask me whether….you know.

Never too old. Never too crazy.