Welcome to DocSmith Knives
Discover the art of handcrafted high-end kitchen knives forged with quality and artistic beauty.
Who is this Doc?
And why is he smithing?
I guess my journey with knives started when I was a toddler. My grandpa was a butcher, and even though he passed away when I was about 4, he left his knife collection in my dad's care. And since the best way to get a kid interested in something is to make it obvious he's not to play with it, my dad did the best thing - he kept the knives wrapped in cloth waaaay up where I couldn't get a hold of them.
That initial spark never left me. I spent my youth playing with knives, breaking them, sharpening them and planning how to get a knife of my own.
Making a knife, well, the knife, was always the plan... But as life steps in, the plans of the young often get pushed to the side.
So it was not until I was in my late 30s that I finally said - OK that's it. It's now or never; I bought a cheap sander, some files, and some sanding paper. Dad's BBQ and an old hairdryer played the forge part.
I made my first knife.
And for almost a decade, I haven't looked back.
Sure, sure, but why DocSmith?
Well, I am a doctor, not like Dr. Dre, but a real one with a PhD in cognitive neuroscience. My work hours are spent as a researcher at the Institute of Croatian Language, and my smithing goes on in my free time.
Hence, DocSmith.
That brings us to the topic of my production capacity. I am not a full-time bladesmith. I build my "girls" when I can sneak out of all my obligations; the job, the wife, and my little gremlin.
Consequently, I don't make a lot of knives, usually, it's 3-5 builds a month.
On the other hand, since I am not under pressure to make a living with bladesmithing, I can and do work closely with my clients, and make them their dream knife.
Handcrafted Kitchen Knives
Discover our exquisite collection of hand-forged kitchen knives, crafted with precision and artistic flair.
Knives
The majority of my knives are made of high-carbon steels. I do, from time to time, venture into stainless steels, but honestly, unless explicitly asked by a client, a simple high-carbon steel is my go-to medium.
In the last couple of years, I have been more focused on forge-welding techniques, so a big part of my work includes some kind of laminated steel, like ni-mai, san-mai, go-mai constructions, as well as various damascus patterns and plug-welded designs.
Most of my designs are heavily influenced by Japanese knives, with gyuto being my favourite and most frequently built profile.
One man band
Every step of a knife build is done by me, from the design on the paper through forging, grinding, hand-sanding, handle making, etching, and testing, all to the final sharpening on the whetstones.
That way, I can take full pride in my work and take the blame for any mistake made.
Since I'm human, I do make mistakes, and seeing how my knives are hand-made, they are not perfect. Naturally, I would never let a knife leave my shop if I wasn't 100% sure that nothing was impairing its performance. Any small "imperfections" should be viewed as part of the charm of the hand-crafted product.
Custom vs Availables
Lifetime guarantee?
I try to balance my workload between custom builds and availables, trying to deliver a knife when a knife is asked for.
There is not much point in writing an essay about customs: I can build you just about anything you can imagine. But imagination comes with a price - the more complex the build, the higher the price. Even so, I do try to make my knives as affordable as humanly possible.
Availables are the knives I purposely build to be affordable and available. Now, affordable is a relative term, and what's affordable to one is unaffordable to another.
But we are still in the domain of high-end hand-made items, offered at a price that's close to or even less than some of the mass-produced factory-made knives. And in my opinion, "one of a kind" should count for a couple of extra coins.
Do I offer a lifetime guarantee?
Sure, but with a couple of conditions. The first one being that you actually know what you are doing with the knife and how to take care of her.
That means, no trimming the bushes, making kindling, cutting dry-wall, or something equally creative that you just can't be bothered to do with a proper tool - obviously not one of my knives.
Taking care of a high-carbon steel knife is not that hard, but it needs to be done the right way.
You don't know how or what. Well, that's part of my job - to teach you all you need to know. All you have to do is ask.
All being said and done, if the knife breaks or becomes unusable in any way as a result of my mistake or material failure, I will repair it or build you a new one free of charge.
Furthermore, for all my knives I offer a yearly free-of-charge maintenance service that includes sharpening and clean-up.
This one looks kinda OK!
My 4 year old daughter
★★★★★
