After filling our bellies with BBQ we went for a little walk around Gowanus and stumbled across an amazing knife shop called Cut.
I first heard about Cut and the owner/maker Joel Bukiewicz when I watched this little documentary online...
... and someone from our Leeds studio had met Joel at a Do Lecture last year and had suggested we go and find his shop... so it was great to stumble across it today.
Joel makes amazing kitchen and cooking knives, all by hand, all by himself in his workshop below the shop - he was nice enough to give Abi and I a wee tour!
We walked down the stairs in to his amazing workshop, full of all sorts of tools for each part of the knife making process, from cutting the profile of the blade, to heating the metal, sharpening the blades, making and shaping the handles... it was amazing.
It was great to hear how he got into knife making - he was working as a part-time wood cutter, earning money to fund his writing career, but felt he enjoyed working with his hands more than work at a computer so started making hunting and army knives, then he started making kitchen and cooking knives and has been doing it for the last 10 years.
The knives start off a little something like this...
It was such a nice surprise to find the shop and for Joel to show us around and to be so welcoming - he offered us some beers too, but we were ready to pop from our BBQ so we passed on those. It was really inspiring to meet him and to see what he did and hear how he got into doing it.
I love how industrious Brooklyn is, it seems to be full of people doing their own thing and taking the risk of leaving their jobs to start making and selling something that they're passionate about. Meeting the people from Two Arms last weekend and Joel this weekend has been great - and given me a lot of inspiration.
Maybe Abi and I should pack in the design thing and open our own food truck or something?
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