The Marlow

Description

Why choose this knife

The knife we make for ourselves, with the two details we don’t fit as standard. Our signature spine pattern, crisp and tactile against the thumb, and a Padauk handle shaped by hand and eye rather than left flat. Same versatile Savernake shape – not too big, not too small, with a prominent stop, a gentle rock on the upper half of the blade, and a little lift at the tip – but in the form we’d want in our own kitchens.

Dimensions

Blade 18cm. Overall 30.7cm. Depth 4.7cm. Weight 200g.

The Story

The Marlow gets its name because of what happened in early 2026, when Tom Kerridge’s office got in touch. Could we make two custom knives? One for Sarah Hayward at The Hand & Flowers in Marlow, one for Brad Cacela at The Coach, also in Marlow. Two chefs, three Michelin stars between them, one town.

Our relationship with Tom goes back to 2018, when we first met at Pub in the Park and he bought a butcher’s knife in Leadwood and a boning knife in Rosewood. He has ordered from us quietly ever since, and every now and again he gives one to his protogés. Sarah had her first Savernake in 2022, when she held on to her first Michelin star. She’s now at two, so she got another.

We made both knives the same: Padauk handles, grey liners, our crisp and tactile spine pattern, and a handle shaped by hand and eye. The two features we fit as standard on every blade that leaves the workshop with a chef’s name on it. They are, quite simply, the upgrades that matter. Every Marlow gets both.

It’s the same blade that earned our Savernake Knife its place in the top 2.5% of all cutlery tested by CATRA. The same concave grind, the same 60 HRC nitrogen-hardened steel, the same 15-degree edge geometry. What we’ve changed is everything about how it feels in the hand.

We called it The Marlow because two of our favourite knives we’ve ever made went to chefs working in that town. It seemed only right.

Performance

CATRA – the global authority on cutlery performance – rank our knives in the top 2.5% of all blades ever assessed for initial sharpness and edge retention. The The Savernake Knife is hardened in-house to 60 HRC using a nitrogen atmosphere process, taking the steel from 1080°C to -75°C in a controlled cycle that maximises carbide formation, edge stability and corrosion resistance. The blade is ground to a unique concave profile – a geometry that reduces drag and improves slicing performance without sacrificing rigidity. Each knife is sharpened to 15 degrees per side.