Hi there,
When Jake and I started Made In, we didn't set out to build just a pan company. We set out to build a house of product lines that all answered to the same idea: kitchenware designed to perform in the world's best kitchens, made by master craftspeople who have perfected each craft for generations.
Now is the best time of year to start with our French Knives. Our End of Season Sale is live, and the French Chef's Knife that anchors the whole line is $99.99, down from $129.
But I want to tell you where these knives actually come from first, because it's one of my favorite Made In stories. It all started in France, when we were just a company of 4 people...
The original 4 Made In employees on our first trip to France to make knives
FORGED, NOT WELDED
For knives, the craft we chased is forging. Real forging is rare now. Very few places in the world still do it, because it's slower and more expensive than the alternative.
Most factory knives, including most (if not all) made in China, are stamped: two flat pieces of steel are cut out, welded together, and then the weld seam is polished over at the bolster so the finished knife looks forged. It photographs fine. But that weld sits right where the blade meets the handle, at the exact point that takes the most stress, and it leaves a structural weak point hiding under the polish.
Our French forged knives are the opposite. They are made from a single rod of steel, heated and hammered into one continuous piece, blade through bolster through tang. No seam, nothing to fail. You get better structure, better balance, and a knife that holds up for decades instead of years. That's the difference you feel the first time you pick one up, and the difference you're still feeling ten years in.
WHY THIERS
That's why our first knife line took us to Thiers, in central France. Thiers has been the heart of French knife-making for something like 700 years, and the French chef's knife it perfected is one of the two patterns most modern chef's knives descend from.
You know in Thiers when you see the turn-off sign, because the sign is literally a knife. The entire town is built around blade-making. Thiers sits in the middle of a forest, which mattered enormously hundreds of years ago, because that wood was the fuel that fed the furnaces for the forge. A river runs straight through the center of town, and that water powered the wheels that spun the grinding stones.
The old knife-makers worked lying flat on their stomachs on wooden planks stretched out over the river, leaning down onto the wheels to grind each blade by hand. In the winter it was brutally cold out over that water. So they trained dogs to lie on top of them, on their backs and legs, while they worked. The dogs stayed warm, the grinders stayed warm, and the knives got made. That's the level of obsession this town has carried for centuries.
We make our knives in that same place, using those same high-end forging techniques, without the welding shortcuts.
WHERE WE IMPROVED ON THE TRADITION
We took the forged French foundation and adapted it into what we think is simply a better knife.
The bolster is angled to guide you into a proper pinch grip, thumb and forefinger right up on the blade, which is how professionals actually hold a knife for control.
We removed most of the heel. The big heavy heel on a classic chef's knife adds weight you don't need, so we took a cue from Japanese knife-making and slimmed it down. This does two things. It makes the knife lighter and more nimble, and, more importantly, it protects your ability to sharpen it evenly for life. If the heel is a different thickness than the rest of the blade, you can't maintain a consistent edge over years of sharpening. The entire point of a forged knife is that with proper care it lasts forever, so the last thing we'd design in is a heel that quietly ruins the edge geometry every time you sharpen.
We use asymmetric bevel technology. Most knives are ground evenly on both sides, 50/50. Ours are asymmetric, ground more steeply on one side than the other. The payoff is real: a thinner, keener edge that feels noticeably sharper, tracks more precisely and cleanly through food instead of wedging or drifting, and is easier to bring back to full sharpness with a few light passes.
Put it together, and you have a knife forged the old way, in the town that has done it longest, refined with the details that make it lighter, sharper, and sharpenable for a lifetime.
THE DEALS, BEFORE THE SALE ENDS
The End of Season Sale is the best pricing we run on these all year, and it doesn't last long. If you've been meaning to upgrade the one tool you touch more than any other in your kitchen, start here:
- Shop the whole French Knife Collection
Thanks for following along. If you're looking for the whole End of Season Sale, you can shop that here.
Chip
*Note that during the end of season sale, no other deals / coupons will apply. While supplies last.
You received this email from Made In. If you would like to unsubscribe, click here. |
