American Craft Forums
American Craft Forums
Knives Out: Craft of the Bladesmith
This forum occurred on Thursday, July 18, 2024 but you can relive the conversation here or on our YouTube channel!
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Knives are one of the earliest tools in human history, appearing more than two million years ago and used for hunting and defense. These days, knives arguably play their most prominent role in the kitchen as an invaluable tool for preparing food. How many times have you picked up a knife in your own home without realizing the history and craft behind the blade? For bladesmiths Bob Kramer, Vu Nguyen, and Everett Noel, the considerations of tradition, technique, and use are foremost as they craft handmade knives that are coveted as much for their beauty as for their function.
Join our speakers in conversation, guided by James Beard Award finalist Chef Yia Vang of Union Hmong Kitchen (Minneapolis, Minnesota)—and Iron Chef fame—for a deep dive into the art of bladesmithing and all things knives. We’ll explore history and use, various making techniques—often ancient and honed over centuries—the thinking that goes into choosing design and materials, and how those materials and techniques come together to produce a tool to be used at home, as well as some of the world’s greatest restaurant kitchens.
MODERATOR
Yia Vang is a TV personality and highly decorated chef who currently is the owner/chef of the James Beard-nominated restaurant Union Hmong Kitchen located in Graze Food Hall in North Loop Minneapolis specializing in Hmong cuisine and a 2nd location in the Uptown area in Minneapolis. The stateless, nomadic community’s history reveals itself in its spicy, smoky, mouth-walloping cuisine, marrying influences from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Southern China. Union Hmong Kitchen started out years ago as a pop-up but its popularity led him to relocate in a food trailer and eventually a location at Graze Food Hall.
Though Minnesota is home to the largest diaspora of Hmong people living outside Asia, no brick-and-mortar restaurant has been exclusively dedicated to Hmong cuisine until Yia and his team of misfit cooks launched a Kickstarter campaign for Vinai, the Twin Cities’ first brick-and-mortar restaurant devoted to “the past, present, and future of Hmong cooking.” Vinai at its core is a love letter to his parents. The restaurant is slated to open in 2024 in Minneapolis.
https://www.unionkitchenmn.com/ | https://www.vinaimn.com/ | @yiavang70
IN CONVERSATION
Bob Kramer has been making knives full time since 1992. He earned his Master Smith rating from the American Bladesmith Society in 1997 and won the American Craft Council Rare Craft Fellowship, presented in conjunction with The Balvenie, in 2015. He lives in Bellingham, Washington.
https://kramerknives.com/ | @bobkramerknives
https://www.craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/beauty-use
Everett Noel has been making knives for over 12 years. Focusing on kitchen knives, folding knives, and belt knives, he sources the wood from fallen trees and sculpts blades from solid pieces of steel. He believes that his whole life is part of the process—cooking, time with family and friends, seeing art, surfing, and the knives become infused with all of it. Noel lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California.
@everettnoelknives
Vu Nguyen (Crozet, Virginia) came to this craft later in life after an ambitious yet ill-fated stint as a chef and restaurateur. His metalworking education began when he joined Blanc Creatives in his forties, starting with no experience, to help create forged carbon steel cookware. Much of his knowledge comes from YouTube and interacting with other knife makers. While he wishes he could say his journey from the kitchen to the workshop has been driven purely by a passion for enhancing the cooking experience with well-crafted, functional tools, the truth is simpler: he enjoys putting a shine on people's days. Creating things, whether it's food or the tools to make food, is an exercise of agency that puts a shine on his day.
https://thedustworks.com/ | @the_dustworks
TOP: Handcrafted knives by Everett Noel. Photo courtesy of artist. ALL OTHERS: Portraits courtesy of the artists.
Watch Recordings of Past Forums
- Summer 2024 | Knives Out: Craft of the Bladesmith
- Spring 2024 | Simple Pleasures: Crafting Our Daily Rituals
- Winter 2024 | Vibrant & Vivacious: Conversations in Craft from New Orleans
- Fall 2023 | The Violinmaker & The Virtuoso: Craft from the Workshop to the Concert Hall
- Summer 2023 | Foragers: Making Connections Between Places and Materials
- Spring 2023 | Woven Through Water: How Boatbuilding Connects Communities and Cultures
- Winter 2023 | Houses Into Homes: How Craft Makes a Difference
- Summer 2022 | Shaping Glass, Shaping Culture: A Conversation With Preston Singletary and Leo Tecosky
- Spring 2022 | MOSAIC: Where Craft and Fashion Meet
- Winter 2022 | Craft Writing Now: Meet the Winners of the Lois Moran Award for Craft Writing
- Fall 2021 | The Secret to Collaboration With Omar Tate and Gregg Moore
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- Spring 2021 | Forward Motion: How Craft Can Help Us Move From a Crisis of Care to a Culture of Care
- May/June 2020 | Craft Thinking
- April 2020 | Innovation in the Face of Adversity
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