Happy EntrepreNewYear: Meglio Knives – Artistry in Cutlery

Meglio Knives. That is correct. Today I'm featuring another knife maker, but he's not the sort of artisan you will typically seen featured in RECOIL or on RECOILweb.

Yesterday we discussed the Renaissance Man, the obligation such a man has to cook and (at least in some small part) the need to use quality tools — tools such as those made by Tin Roof. The nicest handmade, high gloss restored Texas pecan wood cutting board, or any cutting board for that matter, is of little use without a proper, decent quality knife. These will range from a barely adequate Sanoku to a +5 fully vorpal Gan Jiang – Mo Ye carving knife depending your need and means.

Meglio Knives (@meglio_knives) are closer to the latter, and like the work of other craftsmen we've introduced here they are extraordinary. How else to describe custom kitchen knives built with bocote harwood, koa wood, partridge wood, Lignum Vitae, or African rosewood and adorned with mammoth molar inlay, alligator tooth pins? What about a matching set of knives made with thousand year old birchwood dredged up from the Congo River?

Meglio's Brandon Hampton and his brother Bobby don't build from the typical kitchen knife/chef's knife steel. Rather they uses material like CPM 3V, a tool steel more often used in fighting knives. As a result their knives are among the hardest (if not the hardest) kitchen knives available. Brandon approaches and understands PM (Particle Metallurgy) from a different tack than other kitchen knife manufacturers because he learned the science and art of knife making in the construction of fighting knives intended for (and I cringe to use this word) tactical use. This is a result of learning knife making, material technology and blade geometry from Duane Dwyer (Strider Knives). Bobby Hampton, for his part, is a precision machinist who runs the CNC vertical mills, horizontal mills, lathes and assorted other high tech machines that allow them to build their knives.

The results speak for themselves.

We’re starting 2016 out right — we’ll be showcasing worthy small American businesses all through the month of January. Capitalism is part of the foundation upon which our great republic stands, and small business is a vital part of that. Join us in recognizing and acknowledging that truth and supporting craftsmen and small businesses. Happy EntrepreNewYear.

We may live without poetry, music, and art;
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends; we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks. Bulwer-Lytton (1831-1891)

You can read more in this interview.

Learn more about the knife steel in this brief rundown by Duane Dwyer of Strider Knives and Dwyer Custom Goods.

Other Meglio Knives videos on their YouTube channel.

You can find my complete roundup of Happy EntrepreNewYear posts right here.