I've spent my career cooking in some of the best restaurants in Chicago. I've always valued my knives, but it wasn't until I started learning how to sharpen them that I truly began to understand the nuances and beauty of high quality kitchen knives.

After more than a decade in fine dining, I decided to try a different path and became a culinary instructor. Teaching has always been a passion of mine. As a chef instructor, I taught all kinds of culinary techniques to anyone from casual home cooks to professional chefs. The most basic and rewarding lesson is knife skills. Through knife skills, I learned the value of the most basic question, "What makes a good knife?"

Knives are the oldest tool on earth. Through trial and error and relying on the expertise of chefs and home cooks alike, kitchen knives have been distilled into a few specialized shapes and styles. Within these parameters, I use unique materials and and high performance steels to create functional art for chefs and home cooks alike.

A knife can affect every aspect of your work in a kitchen, so it's importance cannot be overstated. A sharp knife can take the drudgery out of prep work, give you the confidence to use it safely, affects how your food tastes, and how long it lasts.

I value knife performance over everything. That being said, there's no reason your knife shouldn't be one of a kind and exactly how you want it.