15cm Chef’s Knife
£275
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
The smallest knife we make that genuinely functions as a chef’s knife: it has the rock, the knuckle clearance, and the heel depth that smaller knives usually sacrifice, built from the bones of the Agile Yeoman with those shortcomings fixed for those who want to work it hard on a board.
The Compact Chef started life as a bespoke commission from someone who liked smaller knives but was frustrated by what they could not do. We took the Agile Yeoman, added roughly a centimetre of depth at the heel, and found ourselves with a genuinely different knife. The character had changed. It had rock. It had knuckle clearance. It worked, but still retained much of the spirit of a smaller utility knife. We have made a lot of them since, and the lesson we took from the process, that a centimetre here and half a centimetre there can transform a blade entirely, has informed how we think about the whole range.
The Compact Chef 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
Timber handles benefit from a light application of food-safe cutting board oil once or twice a year. Composite handles need nothing beyond normal washing.
Yourself
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
– Montaigne
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
