Neil Rankin built his name on fire and meat, and the set we made with him is one of our earliest collaborations. It is a barbecue set, four knives: a boner, a chicken knife, a cleaver and a butcher’s knife.
The handles are layered Richlite, the kind of dense composite used for guitar boards. Cut and finished, the layers read as bands of red, brown and black running through the handle, so the material does the decorating without any pattern being added on top.
The grip is textured, what we call a shark-skin finish, which earns its keep when your hands are wet, greasy or cold and the work is happening outside rather than at a clean board.
It is an early piece, and you can see that it is. But it is one we are still fond of, because it was an early sign of what a collaboration could be: a set designed around how someone actually works, rather than around how a knife usually looks.
It taught us something we still rely on. Design the set around how someone works, not around how a knife is supposed to look.
In collaboration with Neil Rankin.