English Walnut Quad

Description

Why choose this set?

Four knives in exceptionally figured English walnut, chosen to cover virtually everything a kitchen asks of you without a redundant blade between them.

The Story

Walnut (Turkish, admittedly, but the principle stands) has been prized for centuries as a gunstock material for good reason: exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, beautiful figure, and a grain that rewards the hand.

English walnut takes that further with its depth of colour and the striking interplay of heartwood and sapwood, but it comes with a catch – often being too porous for a knife handle, absorbing moisture and eventually compromising the wood.

These pieces have been with Henry Lee, an arborist and stabilisation specialist in County Durham, for a month. Where there was moisture and air, there is now fully thermoset resin, forced in under pressure until every void is filled. The result looks like wood, feels like wood, and yet behaves like the modern composite it has effectively become. It will not move, warp, or degrade. It will just get better looking as you burnish it with use.

The four knives in this edition were not chosen at random. Between them they cover the full range of what most kitchens actually ask of a knife: the Agile Yeoman for slicing, impromptu carving, and in-hand work that needs a point; the Stout Yeoman for precise in-hand work and anything intricate; the Good Chopper for flat-edge chopping and dicing; and the Classic Ultra for rocking through everything else. Together they handle ninety-nine percent of kitchen tasks without functional overlap, and without requiring you to ever pick up a knife that feels too large for the job.

We have enough stabilised English walnut for approximately twenty knives. When they are gone, this material moves to the Gallery of Prior Work. It will not come back.

Please note that every handle will be subtly different (while equally as beautiful)