Hearthkeen Hand Forged Damascus Viking Chef Knife Set | 5 Piece Kitchen Roll | 1095 and 15N20 Blades with Walnut Handles and Brass Bolsters | Wedding Gift | RK-1778

This is a five piece kitchen set forged from pattern welded Damascus. It runs from a long slicer through a full sized chef knife and a mid weight utility to a small paring blade, finishing with a serrated bread knife. Every blade is 1095 and 15N20 forge welded into a layered billet, so the flowing Damascus pattern is in the steel rather than printed on it, and each carries a panel of engraved Celtic knotwork behind the bolster. The handles are walnut scales pinned to full tangs and set behind polished brass bolsters. A brown leather roll ships with the set.

Five knives is not an arbitrary number. Any professional kitchen will tell you that ninety percent of the work is done by a chef knife and a paring knife, and that the other three exist because of geometry rather than fashion. A slicer is long and thin so it can pass through a roast in one stroke instead of sawing. A serrated edge exists because bread crust is harder than bread crumb and a smooth edge skates off it. A utility knife is a chef knife that fits in a smaller hand and a smaller space. Buy the five and you have covered the cases that actually differ.

Forged, ground, heat treated, etched, handled and finished in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee, and shipped rolled in leather.

Specifications

The bolster and the full tang, and why they are not decoration

The block of brass between the blade and the handle is a bolster. It does three separate jobs and every one of them matters more in a kitchen than anywhere else.

It moves the balance point back into your hand. A chef knife balanced at the bolster feels weightless through a long session of chopping, because your wrist is not holding up a lever. A knife balanced two inches down the blade will make your forearm ache in twenty minutes.

It stops your fingers sliding forward onto the edge when a hand is wet, which in a kitchen it usually is.

And it reinforces the single most stressed point on the whole knife, the shoulder where the blade steps down into the tang. That is where a knife breaks if it ever breaks. A brass collar wrapped around it spreads the load.

The full tang is the other half of the story. The steel runs the whole length and the whole depth of the handle, and the walnut scales are pinned to either side of it with three pins. There is no shoulder joint, no glued in stub and nothing to work loose. You can see the tang line running all the way to the butt of each handle in the photograph.

Damascus, walnut and an honest note on stainless

The blades are 1095 and 15N20 forge welded together, folded and drawn out. The 15N20 layers contain about two percent nickel and resist the acid etch, the 1095 layers darken in it, and the boundary between hundreds of layers becomes the pattern you can see. That pattern goes all the way through the blade, so it survives sharpening.

You should know what that means in a kitchen. This is carbon steel Damascus, not stainless. It is harder than most stainless kitchen steel and it takes and holds a keener edge, which is exactly why serious cooks buy carbon. It will also develop a patina, and it will spot if you leave it wet in a sink. If you want a knife you can abandon in the washing up overnight, buy stainless. If you want an edge that actually bites into a tomato skin, this is the trade you make, and it is a trade most people who make it never go back on.

The handles are walnut, chosen because it is dense enough to resist water, dark enough to hide the marks a kitchen puts on a handle, and stable enough not to shrink away from the pins with humidity. They are finished in oil rather than lacquer so they can be refreshed at home.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it.

Each blade already carries a knotwork panel behind the bolster, so an engraving ordered there takes its place. A very common request on this set is a couple’s names and a wedding date on the chef knife alone, with the knotwork left on the other four. The leather roll will also take a blind stamped name. See the engraving page.

Handling and the cutting board

Hold the chef knife in a pinch grip, thumb and forefinger on the flat of the blade just ahead of the bolster and the other three fingers wrapped around the handle. It feels wrong for about a day and then it feels like the only sensible way to hold a knife. It gives you control of the edge instead of control of the handle.

Cut on end grain wood or on soft plastic. Never on glass, stone, ceramic or a granite worktop. A Damascus edge at 58 to 60 HRC is hard, and hard edges chip against harder surfaces. One careless minute on a glass board undoes a week of edge.

Let the slicer and the bread knife do their own work. Both are long for a reason and both cut on a draw stroke rather than downward pressure. If you are pushing hard, you are using the wrong knife or a dull one.

Care

Hand wash and dry immediately. Never put these in a dishwasher. The heat, the salt and the long soak will pit carbon steel, loosen handle pins and dry out walnut, and it will do all three in a single cycle.

Wipe the blade after acidic work, because onions, citrus and tomato will grey a carbon blade within minutes. That grey is a patina rather than rust and it is harmless, and many owners deliberately encourage it because a patinated blade resists real corrosion better than a bare one. If you would rather keep them bright, a wipe of food safe mineral oil after drying does it. Our steel care notes go into the detail.

Re oil the walnut handles once or twice a year with any food safe wood oil. Hone on a ceramic rod between sharpenings and use a whetstone rather than a pull through sharpener, which tears a hard edge rather than cutting it.

Forged in Memphis

Every blade in this set is forge welded, drawn, ground, hardened, etched, handled and sharpened in Memphis, Tennessee, and the leather roll is cut and stitched here. None of it comes out of an importer catalogue with a logo added at the end. Because a five piece Damascus set is a lot of forging, allow one to two weeks of processing before it ships, plus a few days for engraving. Shipping inside the United States is free.

The set carries our lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings. If a weld shows a flaw, a pin lifts, a scale cracks or the temper is wrong, we replace the knife. There is no end date and no receipt needed.

A note on handmade variation

These knives are hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. No two Damascus blades carry the same pattern, and the five in your set will not match each other exactly either. Walnut varies from a warm mid brown to a deep chocolate depending on where in the board the scales were cut, and the figure runs differently on every handle. The knotwork is engraved by hand rather than printed.

The steel, the hardness, the geometry and the build are the same every time. The pattern and the grain are yours alone.

Frequently asked questions

Are these food safe?

Yes. Carbon steel, brass and oiled walnut are all long established kitchen materials. The patina that forms on a carbon blade is iron oxide and is harmless. Keep them clean and dry and there is nothing to worry about.

Can they go in the dishwasher?

No, never. A dishwasher will pit the steel, dry the walnut and loosen the pins. Hand wash in warm water and dry straight away.

Will they rust?

They will patina, which is normal and protective. They will only rust if left wet. A ten second wipe after washing prevents it entirely.

How sharp do they arrive?

Sharp enough to shave paper. All five ship with a finished edge and should go straight to work.

Is the leather roll included?

Yes. The brown leather roll with its tie strap ships with the set at no extra cost and holds all five knives with the blades separated.

Can I have a wedding date engraved on one knife only?

Yes, and it is our most requested version of this set. Tell us which blade and we will leave the knotwork on the rest.

What is in the box

• Damascus slicer, chef knife, utility knife, paring knife and serrated bread knife
• Brown leather knife roll with tie strap
• Light food safe oil coat on every blade
• Damascus and walnut care card
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

Browse the rest of the chef knives, the engraved and personalised pieces, the wedding and groomsmen gifts, and the guides.