Polton Knives is my workshop for exploring what a kitchen knife can become through fire, layered steel, cutting geometry, natural materials, and patient finishing at the bench.
Maker portrait · forthcoming
The work
I forge kitchen knives in Pennsylvania, grounded in the traditions and ideas of Japanese knifemaking while pushing toward a language of my own.
What began with blacksmithing became an obsession with the knife as a complete object: the way hot metal yields under the hammer, the tension between unlike alloys, the quiet effect of geometry in the cut, and the way a finish can reveal a material’s history instead of polishing it away.
Layered construction sits at the center of that exploration. I am drawn to combinations that feel slightly unfamiliar—modern alloys, uncommon laminates, and finishes that uncover rather than conceal—while keeping cutting performance as the final measure.
At the bench
Every knife passes through each stage at my bench: forging, grinding, polishing, and the shaping of the natural elements that complete the piece.
Japanese natural whetstones are an obsession. Beyond sharpening, I use them to coax out structure and movement in laminated steel—the subtle ghosts, boundaries, and currents that appear when stone, alloy, and technique meet.
That attention continues into the handle. Wood, stone, and metal are chosen for the individual blade, then shaped around it rather than treated as interchangeable hardware. The goal is a knife that feels inevitable as a whole—geometry, balance, texture, and character speaking with one voice.
