George’s Custom Knives
George Vondriska
Description
Life is too short to tolerate bad knives in my kitchen! I want good knives that take and hold an edge well. As an extra bonus if I make the knife handle myself I’ll have knives with distinct, custom handles made from a variety of materials. I love that.
Getting the knife blanks
Knife blanks are available in virtually any style you want, in a huge variety of price ranges. I’m a big fan of Damascus steel knives. From large chef’s knives to paring knives, and sizes in between, you can find great quality knife blanks. You can spend as much or as little as you want on knife blanks.
Getting a handle on it
Close-grained hardwood works great for knife handles. You can also create a mix of epoxy and wood by pouring epoxy over the small pieces of wood in an epoxy mold. Some of my knife handles are a hybrid mix of epoxy and wood. Making the handles is a straightforward process you can do with simple tools — check out our “How to Make Handmade Knives From Wood” class.
The knife block
I love my knife block because it holds the knives AND it displays the knives. You can see the cool handles, and you can see the great Damascus blades. The knife block is one of the projects in my live edge slab book.
Keep ‘em sharp
Dull tools are no good. Same for kitchen knives. Keep those knives scary sharp with a good knife sharpener.