Most of my knives are commissions, custom made to order. Becoming the proud owner of a hand crafted Lubel knife is a unique experience. The process from initial idea to your finished knife is highly personal, engaging and let’s not also forget fun. It goes a little something like this…
Your Unique Knife.
1. Initial Ideas
The process starts with a conversation to get an idea of what kind of knife you’d like built for you. Questions like the type of chef you are, what kind of food you mainly work with, knives you already own, what you like about them and also dislike, materials that inspire you and even details like the size of your hands. This gives me a clear direction of what kind knife to design for you, and importantly how it should feel in use. At this point I give you a ‘ball park’ price for the type of knife you plan to have made.
2. Design
Now that the vision for your knife has been established, I proceed to designing it. I create photo-realistic mockups of your knife, with variations of materials, blade and handle profiles. The handle materials used in your mock-ups are the exact pieces that I have in stock and that will be used on your knife, so you know precisely what you will be getting. Often there will be one particular design option that a customer decides on straight away, but we can also go back and forth, tweaking the design until you are completely happy and excited about your new knife.
3. Deposit
Once you decide on the design and materials of your knife, I put together a final price and send you a deposit invoice of 50% of the cost of the knife. Upon payment of your deposit, your knife officially goes in my order book and your build can start.
4. Build
Now I start the build process, turning your chosen design into reality. This typically takes 8-12 weeks from when we sign off on the design. Along the way I keep you informed with emails and photographs, so you can see step by step your knife coming to life. I’ll often post progress of knife builds on my Instagram profile, and you have the choice to be tagged in so you can show off your knife to the world, or to remain anonymous, it’s entirely up to you.
5. Delivery
When your knife is finished I’ll send you a final balance invoice. Once this is paid your knife will be packaged up and sent to you, priority shipping, tracked and fully insured, ready for you to make a unique part of your kitchen for a whole lifetime.