Meet the DCI knife maker - Nate Bonner
About Nate Bonner
My company exists with the help of my family. I started the company with my step mother 7 years ago. I previously worked as a chef (graduate of the New England Culinary Institute). I started in the food and beverage industry as soon as I could obtain a work permit at the age of 14. I began as a dishwasher and worked my way up, attending several culinary programs along the way and earning several executive chef titles. I was always knife obsessed and this seemed to the natural path for me to go down. I began to teach myself and eventually met several acomplished knifemakers who would go on to mentor me.
My family and I eventually opened our own knife production and retail shop on historic route 66 in Maplewood, Missouri suporting a full time staff. We all enjoyed some great but short lived success. At the peak of our sales I regrettably ended up with a knife in my hand. After emergency surgery and 8 months of physical therapy, we had lost too much time and production. I will say that I was very blessed to have my family and several knifemakers helping to keep the company afloat during that turbulent period. After a long time trying to recover financially and getting our quality and consistency back on track it was just too late. We closed the doors just over 1 year ago.
When one door closes, another one opens. I was offered a private work space 3 doors down from my old space in what is now one of the oldest operating hardware stores in St. Louis. Today I love my workshop and have a great relationship with the owners and the community who has stuck with me an supported me through the good and “not so good” times. I relearned how to grind and forge weld in a way that works for me and am happy to say that in this past few years I have produced some of my best work. Recently, I have completed a 2 week forging course at the New England school of metal work and will be attending 3 more courses around the country in 2021 to further my bladesmith education.
Looking forward to meet you at the show!
Read more at: www.nhbknifeworks.com
Instagram: @nhbknives
Cheers.
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Tickets and more information about the show
See some of Nates DCI knives from DCI Online April 2021.
Click on the images to enlarge them.