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 

Carve a Turkey like a pro

Dudes, are you tired of feeling like a fool every Thanksgiving and Christmas when it's hack up the turkey time? Knifewear can help. We will teach you how to carve a turkey like a pro to win the admiration and glory you rightly deserve.

Our 1 -1.5 hour demo class will cover:

Two techniques to carve a turkey
Displaying the awesomely sliced meat so you look even cooler
How to get the best bit (the oyster) for yourself
Discussion of carving knives and tools
Debate tongs versus forks
Eat turkey sandwiches
Drink beer
Guy stuff

Saturday Oct 8, 7PM

Knifewear 1316 9Ave SE

$40 includes:

   $20 toward a carving knife

   a couple beer

   a turkey sandwich

To book call the shop 403 514-0577
Be quick as we are capping the class at 20 chaps

Cooking School Knife Set

Knifewear has a theory: Student Chefs need great knives, but they have little money. For this reason we have set up the biggest bang for the buck student knife set. Rob and I have been chefs forever and this is the set we think will be the most useful for students at culinary school.

What you get in the set:

240mm Tojiro VG10 chef knife

270mm Tojiro VG10 slicer

150mm Tojiro VG10 boning knife

90mm Tojiro VG10 paring knife

Arcos 270mm bread knife

Kuhn Rikon paring knife

Kuhn Rikon peeler

12" french whisk

fish scaler

fish tweezers

ceramic honing rod

8 pocket YakPak knife bag

free Knifewear shirt

Regular price for the set is: $748
But for cooking school students the price is: $583 (this means you save $165)

So, it doesn't matter if you are going to SAIT, NAIT, CIA, FCI, Leith's, Courdon Bleu (or any cooking school) Knifewear wants you to succeed with your studies. We believe that cooking is easier with the right tools and these are the tools we would use if we wanted the best for the best price. Good luck.

2 for 1 'Cut Like a Chef' Class

Summer is here and we are offering our Cut Like a Chef class at a super hot deal.

What's cool about it

• Slice and dice in culinary bliss with a knife-cutting class.
• Bring your honeypie or a BFF as this class is for two people.
• Stick with your own knives or shop around for the shop's blades.
• Don't have knife envy - borrow some from the Knifewear collection.
• Cutting 101: Learn to choose, hold & wield a kitchen knife.
• Hate veggies? Great, you'll be slicing them into paper thin strips.

What you get

• One purchase equals a knife-cutting class for two people.
• Class is a little over two hours in length (knives not so long).
• Located in Inglewood, Calgary, where all good things are.
• Classes are held Saturdays at 9am.

 

Carving a turkey gets pretty tricky when you're only trained to use a spork, and when someone asks you to dice you eagerly find a spatula and get ready to rumble. Let's get you rocking the kitchen by taking a class designed to make you cut like a chef. With this experience, you'll pop on down to Knifewear with one very blade-friendly pal and learn the ins, outs, arounds and throughs of all things slicing related. Start with understanding which knives suit what purpose, plus contextualize through learning about why knives are shaped as they are. Move onto holding a knife safely and then being practicing the motions one should employ with their knives. Finally you'll learn classic cuts and practice on common fruits and vegetables to demonstrate your slice-savvy powers. Next dinner party, you're bringing your own cleaver.

Pecha Kusha Night #8 in Calgary

I am super excited and honoured that Calgary Arts Development (CADA) have asked my to present at the up coming PechKucha Calgary night. The theme is "Inspire" and I hope that I will......inspire. If you are free on Monday I say pop down to the Grand and find out how I can connect these pictures as well as 17 others.

Devised in Tokyo in 2003, PechaKucha Nights are now taking place in over 400 cities around the world. Drawing their name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat," PechaKucha Nights are based on a simple presentation format: speakers present 20 slides each, for only 20 seconds per slide. It's a format that makes presentations concise and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

Please join us for Calgary's contribution to the global PechaKucha Night fundraiser for Japan.

Monday, May 30
Doors at 6:30pm, event at 7:00pm
Theatre Junction GRAND, 608 1st Street SW

The theme of PechaKucha Night Calgary #8 is "Inspire." Speakers include:

- Dean Bareham, Co-Artistic Director, Green Fools
- Suzanne Boss, Project Manager, Calgary 2012
- Ken Cameron, Playwright/Persuasive Presentation Specialist
- Aviv Fried, Owner/Baker, Sidewalk Citizen Bakery
- Ken Greenberg, Architect/Urban Designer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto
- Kristina Groves, Four-Time Olympic Medalist, Speed Skating
- Kevin Kent, President/Chief Knife Nerd, Knifewear Inc.
- Tony Luppino, Executive Director, Leighton Art Centre
- Dan Meades, Director, Vibrant Communities Calgary
- Lara Presber, Fashion Designer

Hosted by Tim Tamashiro.

Tickets available by donation at the door or in advance at http://PKN8.Eventbrite.com.

All proceeds will go to Architecture for Humanity's efforts to rebuild Japan.

Knifemakers Visit Knifewear!!!

Anryu san,  Master Blacksmith

Kato san, Master Blacksmith

We are super lucky again to have some great guests at Knifewear.

 Masterblacksmiths of Masakage Knives, Kato san and Anryu san, will be joining Shibata san, President of Maskage Knives for a Calgary visit. Shibata san will give a talk about knifemaking and knife sharpening, maybe we'll even get him to sharpen a few.....



15% off all Masakage Knives all weekend!

Kato san and Anryu san have made special letter openers for the first 10 Masakage customers on Saturday. Cool huh. I have one and they are stupid sharp!!

Masakge Knives will be launching a new like of sexy knives. Here's a sneak peek:

Knifewear

1316 9Ave SE, Inglewood

Calgary

Saturday May 21

11am - 4pm