Lambton & Jackson smoke salmon on the edge of Maldon in Essex, in small batches, for kitchens that care about it. Slicing a side of it well needs a particular kind of blade, and that is what we made.
A salmon slicer is long, slender and very thin, fine enough to take an almost translucent slice in a single pull. Those same qualities make it difficult to produce. A blade that long and that thin wants to wander as you work it, and keeping it dead straight through every stage is the hard part of the job.
We made a one-off, with an elaborate engraving running down its length. It is one of those knives that looks effortless and is anything but.
There is a kinship here that goes beyond the product. A good smokehouse and a good knife maker are both, in the end, obsessive about preparation, about the slow work nobody sees that decides whether the result is any good.
Most of the craft in a knife this long is invisible. It is in keeping it straight.
In collaboration with Lambton & Jackson.