Financial Times Interview written by Jackie Daly, Photography by Robert Ormerod - Meet the makers: a bold new wave of craft creatives

Read the original interview by following the link bellow

www.howtospendit.ft.com/house-garden/207655-meet-makers-bold-new-wave-craft-creatives

Alexander O’Neill: the bladesmith

“Knives are something you use everyday of your life and should be perfect both aesthetically and functionally, which is a rarity these days,” says Alexander O’Neill, the artisan behind London-based Gorse Knives. His business – based in a small Kennington workshop – is the culmination of a creative career that began when studying fine art. He found a liking for the more technical aspects of the course and started designing and making jewellery, before going on to take a degree in silversmithing. “I made quite peculiar art jewellery – ceramic mushrooms and strange objects – so I had to make my own tools for that,” he recalls. “It’s really enjoyable when you are creating something as fussy as art jewellery alongside clean-lined implements. I’m not an amazing cook but I’m very enthusiastic, so then I started making kitchen knives – it all developed from there.”

Gorse Knives The Ravensdon kitchen-knife collection, £730, from gorseknives.com | Image: Robert Ormerod

O’Neill uses Japanese aogami (“blue paper”) steel, known for creating an insanely sharp edge. “It comes in a bar that we import from Japan. I hammer that out into the shape of a knife, put a bevel on it and then hammer out the handle,” he says. “Then it’s ground on progressively fine sandpaper grits, mostly by hand, before moving onto the wet stone and then the barber’s strop to get it really sharp.” 

O’Neill works with Japanese aogami steel, which produces a razor-sharp blade | Image: Robert Ormerod

He often tests this personally. “I use the hairs on my arms,” he says. “I get some very weird looks on occasion – that moment when someone suddenly notices the perfectly square patches above my wrist – but it goes to show what you can do with steel with the right skill and attention.”

O’Neill forging a cleaver | Image: Robert Ormerod

It is left to the customer to choose the wood for the handle but O’Neill prefers to work with olive. “It’s very sustainable – there are thousands of acres of olive groves and lots of furniture that is broken down for reuse,” he says. “But it also has a lot of resin in it, so you don’t have to fill it with plastic. Some companies take a very nice piece of natural wood and then infuse that with resin. It’s not technically plastic but possesses all the nasty things we dislike about it.” Instead, O’Neill uses a vacuum chamber to infuse his wood with a Danish finishing oil. “It’s food- and allergy-safe and fills any gaps, while ensuring the wood is glassy-hard.”

Bespoke designs, meanwhile, are all about personalisation. “Someone gave us the neck of a guitar, which we used for [their knife’s] handle. It had the fretboard running through the spine,” he recalls. “Another client asked us to do something with a broken church bench that had furnished their house. It was a really beautiful ancient oak that was almost black in colour due to years of waxing and, I presume, coats rubbing against it.” He used buffalo horn for the bolster – the part of the handle that meets the blade – because it’s incredibly hard-wearing. “The animals are not slaughtered for their horn but are raised for meat, so essentially it’s a by-product. It gives the handle added protection and weights the blade nicely.”

It takes around a week to complete a bespoke commission. “Many people are happy to order from the pre-made collection online, but chefs and professionals tend to come with bespoke orders,” says O’Neill. “Tom Brown of Cornerstone in Hackney ordered one of our knives early on, and there was another chef who requested a purpose-made charcuterie knife. It had an incredibly wide blade – around 7cm to 8cm with a very sharp tip, a single bevel and a very short handle – made for breaking down giant salamis.”

And O’Neill is considering expanding his repertoire. “Working with buffalo horn is very pleasant, so I’m thinking of moving on to spectacles and pens,” he says. “Things that are still everyday, but beautiful.”

gorseknives.com