Short interview with the knife maker Don Nguyen
Don Nguyen was one of the knife makers at the Damasteel® Chef Invitational 2018. He's a young and very talented knife maker with a bright career ahead!
Tell us about you and your company.
I make high-end kitchen knives with a modern aesthetic. My knives seek out to be the best cutters they can be without compromise of any kind. The goal is to be eye catching, emotion invoking, and inspiring to us
For how long have you been working as a knife maker and how come you started with this profession?
I started in 2011, doing a lot of research on how to make knives the year prior before actually making my very first one. I started out of a hatred of dull knives and crying from onions. It triggered me to learn how to sharpen knives and somehow I got the idea to make knives. I’d been making knives part-time since then throughout college and finally went full-time last year after graduating.
What’s your thoughts about Damasteel® and the result of the knife in this material?
The knife making has been pretty straight forward. There were new challenges with the new design and trying to plan the theme around relative to the steel and blade. Grinding and finish was totally straight forward and there were no surprises or concerns. Damasteel is clean and solid material to work with. For me personally, it’s a very engineered look that I wouldn’t use all the time, but it performs well and if planned out, can make a good looking knife.
What is the secret behind the perfect chef knife?
The perfect knife is a 400mm home-smelted water quenched slicer with an S-Grind and gold inlayed bolster. It would come with a sick mechanical locking saya.
Read more about Don Nguyen knives
Instagram: @donnguyenknives
Per Jarbelius, Damasteel® and Don Nguyen, Don Nguyen Knives at the Damasteel® Chef Invitational 2018 in Chicago.
