Create your custom Kramer Knife
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Occasionally, I will have a Lottery for placement on the Order List. If you would like notification when a Lottery will take place, you are welcome to join the Email List.

If your name is drawn, here is the information we will need
to place your order on the Order List.

For more detail of each category, click on the word or scroll down

Style and Size of Blade
select your blade style and the length

Steel
your choice in the steel: Straight Carbon Steel or Damascus

Handle
your choice in wood and the handle shape: EuroLine or Meiji

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Style and Size of Blade
Here are the most common blades I build, in order of the most popular. If you'd like to have one that isn't listed here, when it comes time to place an order, let me know, and perhaps I can build it for you.
European influenced Blades (with recommended blade lengths):
click here for images
Chef (6", 8", 10")
Utility (5")
Paring (3.5")
Slicer (10")
Bread (10")
Breaker/Fillet (10")
Boning (6")
Roast Fork
Sauté Fork
Steak (5")
Japanese influenced Blades (with recommened blade lengths):
click here for images
Nikiri (7")
Japanese vegetable cleaver, symmetrically ground (the western style, with both sides ground). The handle is Meiji.

Santoku (7")
Japanese all purpose Chef knife. The handle can be Meiji, or European.

Usuba (7")
Japanese vegetable cleaver, asymmetrically ground (the traditional style, with only one side ground). The handle is Meiji.

Yanagi (11½")
Traditional Japanese Sashimi Slicer with Meiji handle.
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Steel
Straight Carbon Steel
The straight carbon steel blades are made of 52100 tool steel. This creates an amazing kitchen knife because it has the potential for the finest grain structure, and hence a sharper edge. It is very easy to re-sharpen. The magic happens when you combine the right steel or steel blend, with the right heat treatment. Our heat treatment process, done one blade at a time, is a seven step process and takes over six hours to complete.
Damascus Steel
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Damascus, or pattern welded steel, is the process of combining at least two different types of steel to achieve mechanical properties or to achieve a desired aesthetic. In my Damascus, I use three different types of steel all of which harden and temper in the same temperature range.
To begin creating Damascus, at room temperature I make a sandwich of different types of steel usually starting with 20 layers. This sandwich is tack-welded together and put into a forge running at 2350 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature, the steel becomes "plastic" and "sticky". The steel sandwich is then placed into a hydraulic press or mechanical hammer where these different steels are fused together. Molecules actually move back and forth across this interface between the different steels bonding the materials together. This process is also called diffusion bonding. The resulting billet is then stretched and manipulated to create desired patterns or folded a number of times to achieve a desired layer count, sometimes going up to 10,000 layers.
This process is very labor and material intensive. In some cases up to 70% of the material is lost along the way to achieve a desired pattern. This is why Damascus knives are much more expensive than the straight carbon steel knives.
Often I am asked if Damascus is better than Straight Carbon Steel. I'd say that it isn't better, only different. I see my Damascus knives as a bigger chunk of my soul. The making of Damascus requires more time, and a higher level of concentration. When I developed the steel recipe for my Straight Carbon Steel, the goal was to design the highest performance kitchen blade my experience and skills could muster. The Damascus blades are several steps down the road, as I am able to embellish an already high performance tool with patterns and processes that inspire me and engage me fully while I'm making them.
If you are wondering which steel cuts better I'd say that they cut different. The Straight Carbon Steel blades have the keenest, sharpest edges that I know of. The Damascus blades are made of different types of steel whose many layers extend to the cutting edge. These layers wear at a slightly different rate, causing a very fine micro-serration, which can be very helpful in staying sharp longer. Both sharpen exactly the same way and both get equally sharp, so it's in the way that they wear which is different.
Therefore, in deciding which type of steel you prefer, perhaps you might think of the Damascus as an art piece, as well as a functional tool.
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Handles
Euro Line
click here for images
The Euro Line has a handle that is a bit larger with more heft than the common commercial kitchen knife. The heel and back are rounded and polished for comfort. It is designed to be comfortable for use over long sessions in the kitchen.
Meiji Line
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The Meiji Line handle is based upon the traditional Japanese D-shaped handle. The distinct finger ridge can be customized for both right and left hand users.
Wood
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Cocobolo comes with all the knives, unless an Upgrade is requested.

Cocobolo is my first choice of wood because it is very hard, naturally high in oils, and has an interwoven grain, giving it strength and stability. This Rosewood is beautiful and exotic. In high-end cutlery, Cocobolo has been an industry standard for over 200 years.
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