Let's Beer!

What goes better with knives than beer? Clearly we need a beer and knife party. 

We were thinking what would make our awesome knife shop even awesomer and came up with the idea of Knifewear Beer. The good folks at Beer Revolution have a great brewpub and were just as excited as we were about the idea. Sooooo as a collaborative effort we have brewed an IPA that is so hoppy it will be reminiscent of the flavour of steel. Strong enough to cut your tongue.

6.2% ABV

80+ IBU

It will be available in pints at Beer Revolution and all Brewsters Brewpubs in Calgary. Also might be available in the downtown Edmonton Brewsters. 500ml bottles for off-sale will be available at Beer Revolution. Only 20 kegs were made so Tongue Cutter won't be around for long, maybe 2 weeks. Get it when you can.

We will also have the Masakage Zero knives for sale that night for the first time ever.

Knifewear Tongue Cutter IPA launch party:

February 21 at 7:00pm


Beer Revolution
1080 8 ST SW

Welcome Mike

If you've been into the shop recently you would have noticed a new face. We are proud to announce that Mike Wrinch has joined the Knifewear Inglewood team.

Mike, our third kilt wearer, has been a chef for the past 15 years and has been a knife aficionado for most of them. His love of Japanese knives began, coincidentally, when Kevin started selling them. Mike decided that it was time to get out from behind the stoves and hanging out at Knifewear wasn’t paying the bills so he hired himself. Mike loves to talk about food and cooking as well as knives.

Knifewear Kelowna and Vancouver

Well, the rumours are true....at least we think they are. We plan to open two new Knifewear shops this year. One in Kelowna and one in Vancouver. 

Our Kelowna store, in the heart of Canada's wine country, will be in the steady hands of Mark. We are gonna misss him and his legendary sharpening skills at Knifewear Inglewood, but, hey, Kelownites are gona have way sharper knives now. Personally I'm looking forward to summer visits.

We are planning to open Knifewear Vancouver. How cool is that? Expect sake classes at the Vancouver store as well. 

Knifemakers in the House

This summer (maybe June?) we are having the coolest event ever. We will have 6 blacksmiths from Takefu Knife Village demonstrating old style knife making techniques. Ya, amazing huh? Fire, anvils, sledgehammers, the works. Oh, and traditional white kimono.

The blacksmiths will be Kato san, Anryu san, Kurosaki san, Saji san, Tamura san, Ikeda san. AWESOME!!

Masakage Zero

Masakage Knives are launching a new line caled Masakage Zero. The knives are made by Yu Kurosaki san of Takefu village. He's a young, but awesome knife maker who trained under Kato san. The blades are made with Aogami Super (Super Blue Steel) core and clad with stainless steel.  Tsuchime (hammer marks) are added after forging the blade for good looks and so the balde will slip through food easier. The western iron wood handle has a sexy mosaic pin through it for a bit of extra awesomeness. For those who like a heavier blade Masakage Zero will blow your mind. Launching at the Knifear IPA party on February 21.

Best Videos of the month

Shonen Knife Blitzkrieg Bop

Ok, I have a total weakness for Japanese punk rocker chicks. Especially doing Ramones covers. Shonen Knife, written in Japanese characters as 少年ナイフ, which transliterates as Shōnen Naifu, literally "Boy Knife. I remember see them years ago at the Republik and I think they were actually rightened of the fans. I was slightly scared that night too.

Tying a Fundoshi

Not just fun to say, but super sexy. Fundoshi (褌) is the traditional Japanese undergarment for adult males, made from a length of cotton. Before World War II, the fundoshi was the main form of underwear for Japanese adult males. However it fell out of use quickly after the war with the introduction of new underwear to the Japanese market, such as briefs and trunks.  It's instructional and ....well, you'll see. I think this video may appeal to some more than others.

New Knifewear stickers/shirts

A Pierre Lamielle/Mark Puttick image

So, what do ya think? The plan is to make shirts and stickers that say what we've always wanted to say.

Food Trends for 2012

What's in store for 2012. Easy.

Obviously I think that chefs and home cooks will become more interested in Japanese knives. The more that people use them they realize that a lighter, sharper knife is a great idea especially when it stays sharp longer. Also people will start looking for super high performance cooking gear, even if it’s not dishwasher safe. Think hand hammered copper pots.

Bincho-tan charcoal is the future.

Super pure Binchō-tan char coal from Japan will create a major buzz this summer.

Right now everybody is braising with red wine, garlic, bacon and bold rich flavours, smokers are being used to maximum effort and fatty charcuterie is de rigour. I think that food will lighten up and clean up flavour wise. Think Japanese food based on raw or gentle cooked fish with very few ingredients based on miso, soba noodles, dashi and yuzu. Also Spanish food will continue it’s rise with simply grilled fish, olive oil, nuts and fresh herbs.

Paleo Diet is hot. BTW Pierre Lamielle was the kid in this film.

Eating habits will continue changing toward lower carbohydrate diets. Look at the popularity of #Paleo diet on Twitter and among the CrossFit crowd (biggest workout trend for the next year I predict) and Gary Taubs book “Why We Get Fat”. Carbs are tastey and awesome but looks like they are not terribly healthy after all. Sorry to bring you the bad news.

Sustainable fishing. Yum yum.

Meat and fish is gonna be even more popular in the coming year, but properly sourced. Customers will be asking questions of their meat’s provinence (health, free range, local, drug free, properly fed). Of fish people will be looking more and more for sustainable catching practices and heavy metal levels. I know this is happening now, but it will become almost a religion I hope.

Gluten free will be the new cholesterol free.

Fresh pomegranates will finally get the respect they deserve.

January News

15% Off Maskage Knives

As a thank you to or kick butt customers we are offering 15% off Masakage Knives for the entire month of January.

Masakage knives are near to our hearts at Knifewear because these are the knives we help design.

Come by the shop if you are in town. Or order on-line (the discount is calculated at the checkout).

Knifewear Beer

We love IPA and we love knives, so.......we are gonna make a beer that tastes like a knife. Overly hopped to the point of metalic tasting, almost able to cut the tongue. Cool huh?? This is a collaboration between Knifewear and Calgary's newest brewpub Beer Revolution.

Obviously the label will be designed by our fave designer, Pierre Lamielle.

Expect the launch party to be in early Feb.

Knife Making Demos

This summer (July or August) we are having the coolest event ever. We will have 6 blacksmiths from Takefu Knife Village demonstrating old style knife making techniques. Ya, amazing huh? Fire, anvils, sledgehammers, the works. Oh, and traditional white kimono. 

The blacksmiths will be Kato san, Anryu san, Kurosaki san, Saji san, Tamura san, Ikeda san. AWESOME!!

Takamura san

Always looking for new kick ass knives we were very fortunate to meet Takamura san last year. He makes fantasticly sexy and great cutting knives with R2 powder steel. I would rate his knives amongst the best I've ever used (and I have had the chance to try many, many amazing knives). Takamura san is an outstanding blacksmith and we are mega happy to offer his knives at Knifewear.

New Waterstones

It's time for even more cool stuff at the shop. We have ordered new stones from Imanashi in two styles. Some are mega hard which means they dish very slowly and sharpen knives very quickly. Perfect for hard stainless steels like VG10 and powder steels like R2. The other style we've ordered are synthetic stones that give results like natural stones, perfect for carbon steel knives, like Aogami Super. 

NOTE

Not just knife nerds, but waterstone nerds too. How embarrassing.

December news

Shave Like a Pro

I got hooked on classic shaving gear when trying a proper brush and soap. Who knew shaving could be enjoyable and didn't need to be painful. Turns out all you need is good gear.

Proper soaps lubricates your skin, help the razor glide and leaves your skin moisturized when your done. Those cans of foam just don't do the job well, not to mention the chemicals, drying alcohol and pain killers in that stuff. To go to the bonus round a safety razor or straight razor is just the ticket.

Naoto and I have been rocking safetys and Rob has raised the bar with a straight. All of us, including Mark and Kasumi are using brushes and real soap. Tune into Twitter to catch up on our daily shave updates. @KnifeNerd

We carry:

Brushes: Kent, Simpson, Vie-Long and Vulfix Safety Razors: Merkur

Straight Razors: Dovo and Iwasaki san Soaps: DR Harris (Arlington, Marlborough, Almond, Lavendar, Rose), Dovo (Eucalyptus, Almond, Mint),

Kent (English Gentleman), James Bronnley (Seville Orange & Bergamot), Col.Conk (Lime, Bay Rum, Almond, Amber)

New Stuff in da House

Knives

Just arrived are some super sexy hand folded Damascus blades from Takamura san made from R2 powder steel. These are some of the best blades I've ever used and live in the last cabinet.

New knives from Saji san have arrived as well. The blades are blackened VG10 Damascus steel but the aweosomest part is the Japanese deer antler handles. Very Macho for the manly man you know.
 

Copper Pots

If you’ve ever cooked with a copper pot you know you can’t go back. Hand hammered copper pot from Shimakura-do and Gyokusen-do will be hitting the shelves today. The pots from Shimakura start at $300 and the pots/artwork/objects of desire from Gyokusen start at $1100. Gotta see them to believe them.
 

Books and Magazines

Meat Paper, Lucky Peach, Bones, Fat, new elBulli, Momofuku, Mission Street Food, Joe Beef, Keith Richards Autobiography, Blowin In the Wind (children's book by Bob Dylan), Extraordinary Chickens, Extraordinary Pigs, Ham, Good Meat and books from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Stocking stuffers
As usual we have a fun collection of small items perfect for stocking stuffers. Guitar shaped spatulas, "pot" holders, small chicken books, Field Guide to Meat, hipster food mags, fish scalers, fish tweezers, Best whisks, sharpening stones, sushi