Homemade Chef’s Knife

Homemade chef’s knife. It’s Father’s Day weekend! Honestly one of my favorite weekend’s of the year. Growing up, my dad, my grandfather and I would play a round a golf in the morning and end the day watching the U.S. Open. It was something I looked forward to every year. With my Grandfather passing away when I was 18, it became my dad and me for the next few years, but then just like with everyone, life started happening.

Four years ago, I moved away to Portland, Oregon which is about as far from Orlando as possible. While my dad visited for Father’s Day, we didn’t go golfing. We actually ran a 5k together and went fly fishing, but still ended the day by watching the U.S. Open. Even though it was different, it was still a lot of fun. Now living in Baltimore, we still are pretty far apart so we only see each other 2-3 times a year. Because of that, I always cherish our time together and maybe plan out way too much to do together.

My family vacations involved visiting beautiful spots but planning the vacations around great local places to eat. I inherited my love of food from my mom and dad. While they both cooked, my dad definitely leaned more towards savory and my mom towards sweet. Not to say they can’t make both as they can, but I feel like I learned the best of both worlds. It’s funny to look back at all of my birthdays and Christmases before meeting Lauren. Basically from age 22 to age 27 I received some type of kitchen gift every year and I loved it! For most people, when they have a wedding registry, half of their registry consists of kitchen appliances and tools. That was not the case for us!

When I got engaged to Lauren, I knew I wanted to make gifts like beer caddies and cutting boards for the bridal party, but especially my mom and dad. I wanted to show how much I appreciated both of them by crafting something on my own. I just knew I had to make something related to cooking, as I inherited that passion from them. One thing I didn’t mention in my previous posts about getting into woodworking was the original reason that Station North Library caught my eye was they had a chef’s knife class where you actually made your own homemade chef’s knife from scratch. I instantly thought this would be the perfect gift!

What’s ironic about making this chef’s knife is it also allowed me to get closer to my now father-in-law. The class itself was in Baltimore and was three consecutive Saturdays for 3-4 hours each. Knowing how much he liked to build things, I thought he would enjoy it just as much as me. Looking back, it actually might have been the first thing we ever did together without Lauren around. Needless to say we both enjoyed it tremendously and went on to make many things together.

I’m sorry to say this post isn’t a how-to in making a chef’s knife as it was over a year ago that I made it and it’s just a little too complex to explain. What I can say, is if you ever see a class like that in your area, take advantage of it! When you have someone who knows what they’re doing and goes through step-by-step with you it was a lot of fun. To this day, I got more satisfaction out of making this homemade chef’s knife than anything else. And yes it actually is very sharp and can cut anything that a regular old chef’s knife can.

And even though my dad had an idea I might be doing something like homemade chef’s knife for a gift, it was still a great feeling to give to him. Oh and getting back to planning out way too much. My dad is actually here this weekend visiting, which means we’re going to eat at about 8 different restaurants in a three-day period because as I said before, vacations in our family are all about the food! And in case you were wondering, yes I’ll cook at some point as well. So here is to all the fathers out there on Father’s Day, but especially my dad! I couldn’t ask for a better one!