Focused for much of his career on historical reproductions, blacksmith and bladesmith Emiliano Carrillo's approach to his craft is deep, methodical, and holistic. "Bone-knowing" is how Emiliano describes the knowledge he has absorbed in the process. Inspired by ancient tools of Scandinavia, feudal Japan, and medieval Europe, his early years as a bladesmith were dedicated to reverse-engineering artifacts, both in function and in their decorative and ornamental elements, including historical pattern welding techniques such as damascus.

To do this, Carrillo learned to make his own steels from scratch, including bloomery iron and the carbon alloys that can be attained through carefully controlled processes. Using small amounts of raw ingredients collected locally from the earth — black iron sand among them — a clean, high-quality, hardenable steel called tamahagane can be produced. Whether tamahagane, oroshigane, or modern pattern-welded steels, Emiliano employed these specialty formulas primarily for sword reproductions, a form he was drawn to early on for the symbolic weight the object carries across cultures and throughout human history.

A desire to make objects that would be not only coveted but used and enjoyed on a regular basis led Emiliano to shift from swords and reproductions to culinary knives, pouring the same depth of knowledge and metalworking ability into each culinary object. From a variety of steels to the local wood, leather, and other natural materials he sources for handles, Emiliano's chef's knives are each a work of art, and we are honored to make them available here.