Absolutely Essential.
Absolutely Essential.
£100
A honing steel is not a sharpening tool. The analogy we use is a car: sharpening is your annual service, time-consuming and not something you want to have to do regularly. A honing steel is to a knife as lubrication, coolant and fuel is to an engine – what keeps it happy on a daily basis.
What actually happens when a knife loses its edge is simple: the last ten or twenty microns of the blade have been moved very slightly out of alignment. The steel is fine, the edge geometry is fine and five or six gentle passes on a honing steel and you are back to where you started. That’s it.
The important word here is ‘gentle’. Nothing like you see on telly with people going hammer and tongs, just lightly, frequently, at roughly the right angle. You cannot really get it wrong if you are not trying to take material off.
The other important bit is quality. There are a lot of poor honing steels out there, and a bad one is either too soft (which means you end up shaving metal off your steel rather than honing your blade) or abrasive, which means it is trying to sharpen and hone simultaneously and ends up doing neither well. Ceramic steels fall into the same trap.
What you want is a steel that is appreciably harder than your blade. Ours is 64 Rockwell, against our knives’ 60 HRC. It has tiny ridges rather than a smooth or abrasive surface, because kitchen knives are not carpenter’s chisels: they work with a slight sawing motion, backwards and forwards as well as up and down, and they need teeth on the cutting edge to do that well. The ridges keep those teeth alive and nice and bitey.
Ours are also very slightly magnetic, so any microscopic particles of metal that come loose attach to the steel rather than anything else.
Our standard handles can be matched here, but pretty much any combination can be made, most likely at no additional cost – just get in touch.
Have it out. Use it constantly. It is the single most important thing you can own if you have a good knife.
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.
Essentials & Maker's Choice — Default Handle
Each knife has a default handle that is held in stock and available for next working day despatch.
Essentials & Maker's Choice — Alternative Handle
If you'd prefer a different handle from our standard range, we'll despatch within 7 working days.
Knife Builder & Sets and Collections
All knives designed through our Knife Builder, or ordered from Sets and Collections, are despatched within 3-4 weeks. If you have a particular date in mind, get in touch — we're often able to help.
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.
International Delivery
We charge a £40 flat rate for delivery worldwide.
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
Like some more options?
Our configurator lets you choose from 18 blade designs, with full control over handle material, shape, spine pattern and accent colour.Â
