My dream French Chef’s knife
- This topic has 29 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 03/04/2014 at 7:58 pm by
.
-
A few years ago I fell in love with French folding knives and specifically those made in Thiers France by Phillip Chambriard.
A week ago I discovered he had started making a new set of kitchen knives and most importantly a 210mm Chef’s knife with a blade of Sandvik 13C27 razor steel from Sweden. My heart went thump and I contacted an excellent fellow James MacMillan Bullock from North Carolina. We hit it off wonderfully and in fact he has been haunting our forum even though he is a fine free hand sharpener with unusual skill in that area. I will tell you that he is a trustworthy man who loves knives and sharpening is in his blood. He sells the Chambriard knives but also other Japanese Chef’s knives of note. He is a friend of Ken Schwartz and Tom Blodgett so that was good enough for me and I soon had the knife in my hands due to James’s quick and excellent service. If you ever need a chef’s knife you can’t do much better than dealing with James MacMillan Bullock…my word on that!
The knife I chose has a Juniper root handle just like my favourite Le Trappeur folder. Here is a picture showing my three folders and the knife in question.
How good is it. Those of you who know me, also know I immediately put my own edge on all my new knives…this is the first one where I did not try to improve an already frighteningly sharp knife. As time goes by I will put up some shots of this blade in action, but for now let me say that I have never had a sharper or better feeling knife in my hands and to top it off it is so beautiful at least to this pair of old eyes.Best to all
Leo the deliriously happy guy
Here are a couple of shots of my French beauties Leo. You have some very gorgeous knives there of your very own. It is a mystery to me why more people don’t own these knives as they become better known. Especially here in North America we know them as Gentlemen’s knives, but when push comes to shove, they are every bit as hardy as their American cousins, they are just prettier and look less threatening.The craftsmanship is excellent and the tolerances too…the blades in all my folders sit exactly in the middle when folded into the bolsters and there is no play when they are extended.It goes without saying to anybody who knows, the Sandvik steel used in French and other European knives is first class and sharpens up unbelievably well.
Cheers
LeoHere they are with blades extended. From top to bottom they are Le Trappeur with Juniper, Le Compagnon with Norway birch and Le Compact with Olive wood handles.
Only the top one is a lock back while the other two are slip joint designs.Leo
A few years ago I fell in love with French folding knives and specifically those made in Thiers France by Phillip Chambriard.
A week ago I discovered he had started making a new set of kitchen knives and most importantly a 210mm Chef’s knife with a blade of Sandvik 13C27 razor steel from Sweden. My heart went thump and I contacted an excellent fellow James MacMillan Bullock from North Carolina. We hit it off wonderfully and in fact he has been haunting our forum even though he is a fine free hand sharpener with unusual skill in that area. I will tell you that he is a trustworthy man who loves knives and sharpening is in his blood. He sells the Chambriard knives but also other Japanese Chef’s knives of note. He is a friend of Ken Schwartz and Tom Blodgett so that was good enough for me and I soon had the knife in my hands due to James’s quick and excellent service. If you ever need a chef’s knife you can’t do much better than dealing with James MacMillan Bullock…my word on that!
The knife I chose has a Juniper root handle just like my favourite Le Trappeur folder. Here is a picture showing my three folders and the knife in question.
How good is it. Those of you who know me, also know I immediately put my own edge on all my new knives…this is the first one where I did not try to improve an already frighteningly sharp knife. As time goes by I will put up some shots of this blade in action, but for now let me say that I have never had a sharper or better feeling knife in my hands and to top it off it is so beautiful at least to this pair of old eyes.Best to all
Leo the deliriously happy guyDo you have a link? Sometimes I have people wanting a recommendation 😉 Googling it doesn’t being up anything 🙂
I tend to fall more on the Tactical folder type (sorry Leo’s! Lol) I want to be able to open my knife quickly with one hand. I rarely get funny looks here in sc… Everyone is pretty much used to it 🙂 as a matter of fact, we do not have any minimum size or switchblade carry knife laws here in my state, so that’s cool 🙂
How thin are those French knives typically ground at the shoulders if the edge?
Josh
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.