Estimating project costs
Single chef’s/kitchen knives
A single mid-sized chef’s knife without any major complications or strange design features will take me around 20 hours to design, make and finish. Handle, bolster and blade materials will range from £50-100 for regular ‘high quality’ but not very special/expensive materials, like a walnut handle and plain steel blade, to £200 for rare woods and pattern welded steel blades. Cost also scales with size of knife. A 6” chefs knife would cost between £300 and £500 depending on design complexity and materials. The knife on the left would be around £450 as an example.
More complex knives and sayas
Adding complexity naturally adds time and cost. for the fish knife, the bolster is layered, forged, shaped bronze that on its own took over half a day to make. The blade is very long and very thin, which takes much longer to forge and grind correctly, and and a general rule, a saya takes around 10 - 15 hours to make and finish depending on size, so costs £150-200 + material cost.
This fish filleting knife with saya and specialist damascus steel, took around 50 hours to make including a lot of design time. The materials cost around £200, so a highly specialised unusual knife like this would cost £800-900 and up. The stranger the concept, the longer it will take to design and get right. I love doing them! But they take more time.
Mid range Sets
This is my personal knife set. practical, simple, with a common theme and some minor complexities like using forged layered bronze bolsters. A 5'“ petty knife, 6” chef’s knife and 7” slicer. There are some savings to making multiple knives together of course, using common design, materials and doing processes together. This set would be ~£900-1000 as shown, ~£1500 with sayas.
High end knife sets
Maybe you have something very special in mind, and can afford it. Something using very rare or expensive materials, or outrageously complex and beautiful patterned steel. Custom and complex design. something that will really make a statement, or provide the gift of a lifetime on a very special occasion. or maybe you just want to treat yourself.
The set on the right was a wedding gift and took nearly a year to make. The steel is feather pattern steel made by the best damascus maker in the country. The sayas are made from a single block that was built with copper spacers from a single slab of multi-colour english oak burl, and metallic blue resin, to resemble a coastline. A set of this complexity, design difficulty, finishing quality and material expense will cost £2000-2500 and up.
Desk swords
I think these are my favorite knives to make! elaborate and artistic letter openers, you can really have fun with the design and concept of these, because cutting open envelopes is not very taxing on a blade. You can really make a statement, use a lot of different forms and inspirations and have something on your desk that will be both very pleasing and satisfying to use, but also give your desk a bit of ‘bling’ that will be the envy of your visitors.
The two examples on the left are Japanese inspired 4.5” letter openers with matching sayas. The top one is made from two tone blackwood and the blade is a san-mai laminated high contrast hardened carbon steel. The blade pattern matches the saya, and resembles a sunlight over mountains. It is my personal desk sword.
The lower knife is a Katana inspired blade with blackwood handle, Titanium damascus guard and high carbon polished steel blade, with matching saya. That blade was also made with a stand in the shape of the inital of the new owner.
These knives are complex to make, and require a higher level of fit and finish than a kitchen knife, and use the very best materials. Each of these would be around £600-800, with a stand adding around £100-150 depending on design and material.