Bespoke Chef Knife Breakdown: The “Eve” Commission Case Study

A few months ago, a previous client of mine came to me with a request for a chef knife, entitled Eve, to give to his good friend. The guidelines for the commission were rather freeform, but the request was for the piece to be visually stunning and ideally, be made of stainless steel.
Ever since I started making knives back in 2013, I have forged most of my blades out of carbon steels. Carbon steels are forgiving to forge and grind, easy to sharpen, and they forge-weld together readily when making Damascus or pattern-welded material. Over the years, I have received many requests for knives that stay shiny and require less maintenance, so last year I started to add more stainless steel knives to my repertoire.

One of the main challenges with stainless steel however, is that it is considerably more difficult to weld together into pattern-welded steel: so difficult that only a few dozen knife makers in the world do it reliably. I decided to use the commission for Eve to dip my toe into the world of welding stainless steel.

Steel choice

When it comes to chef knives, there are dozens of different alloys of stainless steel to choose from, but for my first billet of stainless Damascus, I thought it would be easier to work with low-carbon varieties that are more malleable and readily available in thin sections, allowing me to weld many layers at once and save the time and risk of re-stacking multiple times. I settled on 304 and 410 for the two alloys to use.

Those low carbon alloys however, cannot be properly hardened, so I had to choose a third alloy as well to use for the edge. For the edge steel, I chose Nitro-V, which I have used for my Farmstead series of chef knives and kitchen utility knives.

Welding and Forging

After choosing the steels, the next step was to weld them into a bar. It took three attempts before I had a suitable billet for the blade, due to the difficult nature of the material. In the final attempt, I first sanded the surfaces of all the pieces to be welded (roughly 80 thin pieces of steel), and then I stacked them tightly together and fabricated an airtight steel canister around the billet. Then I put the canister in the forge, heated it, and forged-welded it together under the power hammer. Stainless steel is more sensitive to heat than carbon steel, so I had to work more slowly and re-heat it more often to keep it from getting too hot or too cold as I worked.

Once the billet was fully fused, I cut off the steel canister around it and forged the blade. I also opted to grind shallow grooves across the billet during the blade forging process, which resulted in the undulating pattern you see in the layers of the finished blade, also called a “ladder pattern.”

Grinding and Finishing

After the blade was forged and heat treated, the rest of the process of making the knife was the same as any other pattern-welded blade. For the handle, the client and I agreed to use a piece of stabilized box-elder burl with a lively, figured grain. I paired the burl with a polished stainless steel bolster and a black Richlite spacer. After a few more days of sanding, fitting, sculpting, and polishing, Eve was complete.

The Display Stand
One unique feature of this commission was that the client requested a stand to accompany the knife and display it on the countertop when it was not in use. I wanted to create a stand that was both functional and sculptural, helping to elevate the piece and showcase the craftsmanship and handwork that went into it.

I decided to incorporate a branching tree as a reference to the Garden of Eden. The branches would support a magnetic panel that was shaped to match the knife blade, and the magnetic panel would allow the blade to be retrieved and replaced easily and quickly.
I forged the tree and the base out of low-carbon steel, leaving the hammered surface with a rich, dark patina. I chose curly acacia wood for the magnetic knife panel, embedded over a dozen magnets into the wood, and covered the front with bison calf leather to provide a soft contact surface for the knife. The finishing touch on the display stand was a sterling silver nameplate, which I hand-engraved with the knife’s name: Eve.

If you would like to commission a culinary knife to your specifications, you can start the process by filling out my contact form and sending me a description of what you are looking for.
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​About The Author
Jordan LaMothe is a Master Bladesmith, a Fulbright scholar, a member of the Art Knife Invitational Show, and a teacher of knife-making. His work has won numerous awards, has been published in magazines internationally, and has made him a Forged in Fire Champion. At the end of the day, he makes collector's pieces, family heirlooms, and fine tools including culinary and outdoor knives for the kitchen and field.