What makes for a great knife? Why not ask a chef — or better yet, have one make it for you?
Chef-turned-bladesmith Narin MacDonald puts his professional cooking experience to work with each knife he designs, honing details that make his handmade Narin M. Knives the go-to choice of many of his former colleagues and home cooks alike.
MacDonald, 39, is a New England Culinary Institute grad who worked at various Vermont restaurants during his 14-year cooking career, including high-end resort Twin Farms in Barnard and Burlington’s now-closed Old North End spot Butch + Babe’s, where he was the opening chef. His last kitchen gig was at the Great Northern in Burlington; he left the industry in 2019 while dealing with family issues.
“I found myself wanting to make things with my hands and use my creativity,” MacDonald said. “If you’ve talked to chefs, you know we’ve all got a little knife thing going on. How hard would it be to make my own?”
To satisfy that curiosity, he watched thousands of knife-making videos on YouTube. “Then I just went for it,” he said. Looking back, he said his first attempt, from 2020, was “horrible.”
“If you’ve talked to chefs, you know we’ve all got a little knife thing going on.” Narin MacDonald
By 2021, with more practice, he was getting serious about the endeavor. MacDonald used his years of holding knives in the kitchen to make some design improvements. Instead of 90-degree angles on the spine and the choil — the area at the heel of the knife — he rounds them. Otherwise, the knife digs into the cook’s hand and creates blisters.
“He’s my favorite knife maker,” said chef Frank Pace, who co-owns Great Northern Catering and August First in Burlington and was MacDonald’s boss in 2019. Pace’s team uses four of MacDonald’s knives on a daily basis, and both he and August First executive chef Lahi Ibrahim use them at home, he said. When longtime employees leave, Pace gifts them one of MacDonald’s knives as a parting present.
“Narin was an incredible cook, so when he transitioned to knife making, he knew exactly what needed to work,” Pace said. “Once he learned how to refine that — and keep refining it — the knives have just gotten better and better.”
Now, when MacDonald is not taking care of his young child or cooking for his family, Narin M. Knives is his full-time focus. He works in his Monkton garage, using a gas forge, a specialized heat-treating oven that goes up to 2,200 degrees, and a 2-by-72-inch belt grinder. The process for each knife takes days, even without interruptions.
MacDonald mostly makes chef’s knives that follow a Japanese profile. They’re priced between $300 and $400, he said, depending on size and materials; he’ll sharpen every knife he makes for free, for life. To prepare for this holiday season, when he’ll vend at the Shelburne Farmers Market and the Good Trade Makers Market at Hula in Burlington, he’s building a stock of at least 20; 12 or so will be available on his website.
MacDonald stepped away from the forge last week to sit down and chat bladesmithing with Seven Days over coffee at Bristol’s Minifactory. If you’re thinking of gifting a knife this holiday season, he’s got great advice for how to be nice to them.
When you started bladesmithing, did you expect to turn it into a business?
Honestly, no. It was just something that I really enjoyed doing. I found that I picked it up pretty quickly. To me, it’s kind of like cooking: You’re taking raw ingredients and putting fire to them, then turning out something that’s beautiful and functional — or beautiful and tasty, when I was cooking. But taste definitely comes first. You don’t need bells and whistles, like inedible garnish.
I carry that over to the knives that I make. I don’t really like when people say, “It’s too pretty to use.” It’s made to be used.
Even though I’m not cooking [professionally] now, I like that I’m still kind of involved in the industry, providing tools to those who are — and even people who cook at home. It feels good to know that they have something of mine that they’re using to make something nourishing for their family.
What makes a good knife?
Obviously, it has to work. But it comes down to the process. You can have the best steel you can buy, but if you don’t know how to properly heat-treat it, then your knife is gonna be either too hard or too soft. While hardness is great — and it will hold its edge — there’s brittleness that comes with it. If it’s too soft, it’s easy to put an edge on and it won’t be prone to chipping, but it loses that edge quite quickly.
The balance and geometry of the knife matters, too. You want a little convexity in the blade; a straight edge will cut well, but food tends to stick to it more because it creates a vacuum. That’s kind of a nitpicky thing.
What are your knife-related hot takes?
Bamboo cutting boards are horrible for knives. Don’t use bamboo. Wood is best.
You know those pull-through sharpeners? Go burn them. I’m just listing my pet peeves now.
Don’t put your knife in the dishwasher. It’s too harsh. That’s the most important one.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity and length.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Cutting Edge | Three questions for chef-turned-bladesmith Narin MacDonald”
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This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2024.
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