“When I put a piece of my soul into something I make, I want the person using it to experience the full depth of the piece.” This is how artist Jayden Simisky explains his drive to create culinary knives. In his experience, as in ours, chef’s knives are some of the few edged tools in the world, and the most ancient we would add, which are “truly loved and appreciated for their intended use.”
Since childhood Jayden has been captivated by the way the world around him works. Deconstructing, modifying, experimenting, and constructing objects is in his DNA. Before moving to the metal arts of welding, fabrication, and blacksmithing, Jayden built high-powered lasers from scrap parts. At the age of 10, Jayden and his father took a welding class, and the spark was lit. They immediately purchased a MIG welder for the home garage, and Jayden embarked on a new journey that quickly transitioned from hobby to a source of income. Learning in solitude, as well as from a local ornamental blacksmith named David Norrie, Jayden spent several years taking welding jobs, and we’re glad he did, because the money he earned allowed him to transition to full-time knifemaking.
Now, at 21 years old and in school pursuing a degree in environmental science and geology in Boulder, CO not far from his childhood home, Jayden has been crafting knives for over eight years, and full time for five. From complex, house-made damascus patterns, to one-piece, all-steel builds, and multi-faceted design approaches that use innovative techniques which accomplish both aesthetic and functional goals, Jayden’s work has all the hallmarks of a talented and passionate artisan. The chef knife, for Jayden, is a blank canvas. One with limitless artistic opportunities, while guaranteed to delivery function to its owner at the same time. From overall design, to material selection, and the countless approaches to each blade’s creation, the chef’s knife is the “perfect platform to make a function-driven piece of art” as Jayden puts it.
A lover of nature and the outdoors, Jayden’s spirit for adventure has been piqued through the walking of slacklines 3,000 feet in the air, the climbing of ice pillars 13,000 feet above sea level, backcountry skiing, mountain biking, and more. Just as the great outdoors force him out of his comfort zone, where he learns what he is truly capable of, it is the calm, the meditative state that these experiences instill, which he finds also in knifemaking.
