21cm European Chef’s Knife
£320
Choose from over 6,000 possible combinations.
Our configurator lets you choose from 18 blade designs, with full control over handle material, shape, spine pattern and accent colour.Â
Our largest standard chef’s knife, and the biggest prep blade in the BBQ range. The volume work before a long cook – portioning protein, halving large vegetables, powering through serious mise en place – is exactly what it was built for. Deep enough for full knuckle clearance throughout, long enough to slice cleanly in a single pass.
The Workhorse has always been the knife we make for people who like a substantial blade and want it to stay out of their way while they use it. A big knife that behaves itself. For the BBQ range, the character of the knife did not change. The handle did.
The kitchen version sits on a wooden handle. The BBQ ’26 version does not. Micarta is a phenolic laminate of cotton and linen cloth, compressed with resin under heat and pressure into a dense, stable composite that has been the handle material of choice for outdoor working tools for over a century. It does not absorb moisture, does not swell, does not split at the pins. A knife that gets used outdoors, washed at a garden tap, and stored in a bag with other equipment needs a handle that can tolerate all of that without developing opinions about it. Micarta has no opinions. It just performs.
The Workhorse is the prep knife in the BBQ range that gets used the longest before the cooking starts. The handle that holds up through a long prep session, with wet hands, in variable weather, earns its place as much as the blade does.
The Workhorse BBQ ’26 is made from Sandvik (Alleima) 14C28N, a modern Swedish stainless steel, hardened in-house to 60 HRC using a nitrogen atmosphere process. The heat treatment takes the steel from 1080°C to -75°C in a controlled cycle that maximises carbide formation, edge stability, and corrosion resistance.
The blade is concave ground to 0.3mm thickness at 1mm from the edge. This geometry reduces drag through dense produce and improves slicing performance without sacrificing rigidity. Every Savernake knife is sharpened to 15° per side.
CATRA, the global authority on cutlery performance, rank our blades in the top 2.5% of all blades ever assessed for initial sharpness and edge retention, tested to ISO 8442.5.
Washing
Wash by hand and dry immediately. The steel handles dishwashers, but the handle materials don’t, and the blade will dull faster regardless. Ten seconds at the sink is the right habit.
Day-to-day maintenance
A honing steel realigns the edge between sharpenings. Two or three passes per side before heavy use is enough. You don’t need to do this every time – just when the blade starts to feel less certain.
Sharpening
We offer complimentary workshop sharpening once a year for the first three years. After that we sharpen at cost. If you prefer to sharpen at home, our blades are ground to a 15-degree bevel – specify this if you use a third-party service, as most sharpen to 20 or 22 degrees as a default.
Storage
A magnetic strip or knife roll is ideal. Loose in a drawer accelerates dulling and risks chipping the edge. If a drawer is the only option, a blade guard solves both problems.
Handle care
Micarta handles need nothing beyond normal washing. They do not require oiling and are unaffected by moisture. Composite handles need nothing beyond normal washing.
Yourself
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson
Each knife has a default handle that is held in stock and available for next working day despatch.
If you’d prefer another of our standard handles, we’ll despatch within 7 working days.
If you design your own knife through the Configurator, we aim for 4 weeks or less to make it from scratch.
All orders are delivered by Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed in specially-designed tubular Savernake packaging.
A signature and age verification will be required on delivery.
We charge a £40 flat rate for delivery worldwide and use UPS.
Lifetime Guarantee
With proper care, our knives are guaranteed for a lifetime of use
Unique Concave Geometry
Our signature blade profile. A cutting edge with only the thinnest sliver of near-parallel steel to follow through.
CATRA Top 2.5% Worldwide
Independently ranked in the top 2.5% of all knives ever assessed for sharpness and edge retention
60 HRC Hardness
Hardened in-house to 60 HRC using a nitrogen atmosphere and cryogenic treatment to -75°C
Individually Crafted
Every knife is made by hand in our Wiltshire workshop, from steel selection through to final edge
