Hearthcutter Hand Forged Stainless Steel Pizza Axe | 12 Inch Handle | Olive Wood Handle with Veg Tanned Leather Blade Cover | Kitchen Housewarming and Groomsmen Gift | RK-316

Hearthcutter is a pizza axe you can put to work the day it arrives. The blade is forged stainless steel, 12 inches along the edge, hung on a 12 inch olive wood handle and finished sharp. It ships in a veg tanned leather blade cover and the blade is left clear and ready for personal engraving, which is the main reason people buy this one as a gift.

The shape is older than it looks. Italian kitchens have used a mezzaluna, a wide curved blade with a handle at each end, for chopping herbs and vegetables for centuries, and a pizza axe is the same idea with the two handles replaced by one long haft. That change is not cosmetic. Putting the grip out on a lever lets you stand back from a hot pie and bring the whole edge down with your body weight behind it, which is exactly what a mezzaluna cannot do and exactly what a wheel cutter is bad at.

It is forged, ground, handled and covered in Memphis, Tennessee, and it ships free within the United States.

Specifications

Why a long edge beats a wheel on a pizza

A pizza wheel is a rolling edge, and a rolling edge works by advancing through material in front of it. On a thin base with light toppings that is fine. On anything else it does two annoying things. It pushes toppings ahead of itself, so the mushrooms and the peppers end up bunched at one end of the cut, and it drags molten cheese, stretching it into strings instead of severing it, because the cheese has time to stick to the wheel and travel with it. Add a thick or crisp rim and the wheel starts skating instead of biting, and you finish the cut by sawing.

A long straight edge does none of that, because it does not advance. You set the blade down across the whole pizza at once and press. Every part of the cut happens at the same moment, so nothing gets pushed anywhere, the cheese is cut rather than dragged, and the crisp rim is severed by the same downward pressure that cuts the middle. On a deep or heavily loaded pizza you can rock the edge slightly from one end to the other to start it, then bear down.

The 12 inch edge is sized to take most home and small oven pizzas in a single pass, and the long handle gives you the leverage and the distance from the heat that makes that pass easy. The rest of the year the same tool works as a herb chopper, a vegetable prep blade for large batches, a dough and pastry cutter, and a bench scraper for lifting what you have cut. It is a kitchen tool and not a woodcutting axe, and it should not be used on anything harder than food.

Why stainless is the right steel here

Most of what we forge is 1095 or pattern welded Damascus, and both of those hold a harder edge than stainless does. This piece is deliberately different, and it is worth explaining why rather than pretending stainless is always the premium choice.

A pizza axe lives in a kitchen. It meets tomato, lemon, vinegar, brine and salt, which are all acidic or corrosive, and it gets washed and left on a rack far more often than any field knife. High carbon steel in that environment will grey over within a week and will pit if it is put away damp even once. That patina is harmless on a hunting knife and unwelcome on a blade that touches food and sits on a kitchen wall. Stainless has enough chromium to form a passive oxide layer that resists exactly those attacks, so it stays bright with no attention at all.

What you give up is edge retention and ease of sharpening, since chromium rich steel is slower to bring back on a stone and generally will not take quite as fine an edge as a hardened carbon blade. For cutting pizza, herbs and vegetables that trade is entirely worth making, because the cutting loads are light and the corrosion exposure is heavy. If you want the reasoning behind the same decision going the other way on a field blade, it is set out in Damascus versus stainless.

The olive wood handle

Olive is a slow growing tree and the timber shows it. The grain is tight, interlocked and often wildly figured, with warm yellows and browns crossed by dark veining, and no two handles come out looking alike. It is dense and naturally oily, which is why olive wood boards and utensils have been standard around the Mediterranean for a very long time. That natural oil content also makes it more water tolerant than most kitchen timbers.

Do not put it in a dishwasher. Heat and prolonged soaking will dry olive wood out and open fine checks in the surface. Wash the blade by hand, wipe the handle, and two or three times a year rub in a small amount of food safe mineral oil and buff it back. That is the whole routine and it keeps the colour deep rather than grey. The method is in wooden handle care.

Engraving, runes and your own design

This blade is left clear specifically so it can be personalised, and it is one of the most engraved pieces we make. 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 or the handle. 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 whether it goes on the blade or the handle. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. A 12 inch blade gives more engraving room than anything else in the kitchen range, which is why family names, wedding dates and housewarming lines all sit comfortably on it. Sizes and placement are on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Wash by hand in warm water and dry it. Stainless will forgive being left wet for a while, but the handle will not, and the leather cover certainly will not. Never the dishwasher. Store it with the cover on if it lives in a drawer, or hang it by the handle.

Sharpening is light work because the cutting loads are light. A medium whetstone every so often at a consistent angle down the length of the edge, refined on a fine stone, keeps it doing its job. Work in sections along a 12 inch edge and keep the angle the same in each. Do not use a pull through gadget on a long straight edge, because it will grind unevenly. Method in sharpening with a whetstone, and general blade care in steel care.

Forged in Memphis

Ransack Viking is a working forge in Memphis, Tennessee. The blade is forged, ground and finished here, the olive wood is shaped and fitted here, and the veg tanned cover is cut and stitched to the finished blade rather than to a template. Nothing on this page is drop shipped from an importer catalogue with our name added to somebody else’s product.

The lead time is what that costs. Processing is one to two weeks before it ships, and longer if engraving is part of the order, which is worth allowing for if it is a wedding or housewarming gift. Shipping within the United States is free and returns are open for 7 days from delivery.

A note on handmade variation

This piece is hand forged. It is not machine made and it is not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. The forge finish on the blade varies in tone and texture. Olive wood is one of the most variable timbers there is, so the colour, the figure and the run of the dark veining will be particular to your handle, and the leather cover is cut from a natural hide that takes its dye at its own rate. The exact curve of the edge shifts by a fraction because it is ground by eye against the shape rather than by a machine against a stop.

The dimensions are the same every time, the steel is the same every time and the build is the same every time. The character is what changes, and on a piece meant to sit out in a kitchen that is generally the reason people choose it.

Frequently asked questions

Is it sharp when it arrives?

Yes. The edge is set before the piece is boxed and it will cut a pizza the day it lands.

Is this actually better than a pizza wheel?

On thin, lightly topped pizza a wheel is fine. On anything thick, crisp or heavily loaded, a long edge is clearly better, because it cuts everything at the same instant instead of pushing toppings along and dragging cheese into strings.

Can I use it for anything other than pizza?

Yes. It works as a herb and vegetable chopper in the manner of a mezzaluna, as a dough and pastry cutter and as a bench scraper for lifting what you have cut. It is a food tool only and should not be used on wood.

Can it go in the dishwasher?

No. The steel would survive it, but the olive wood will dry out and check and the leather cover will harden. Wash by hand and dry it.

How much can be engraved on the blade?

More than on anything else in the kitchen range. A 12 inch blade will take a full name and date, a phrase, or a Norse pattern, and the surface is left clear for exactly that reason.

How long does delivery take?

One to two weeks of processing plus transit, free inside the United States, with returns accepted within 7 days of delivery.

What is in the box

• One Hearthcutter stainless steel pizza axe, 12 inch blade
• Veg tanned leather blade cover
• Gift packaging
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

Related pieces sit in Viking axes, chef knives, engraved and personalised pieces and accessories. Steel, sharpening and handle care are covered in the guides.