Witness the birth of an heirloom
Skarpari is the Icelandic word for sharper.
Sharpness is our ultimate goal as knife makers. We have always been fascinated with the history of sharpness.
When did we acquire it? And how was it lost?
These are the questions we hope to answer as we explore the art of sharpness.
New materials, local lore, and knife history. This site and what we sell is being done in the pursuit of “Skarpari” or sharper.
We hope to help you regain sharpness in your home or out in the field, in a culture that has all but lost the ability to keep or have sharp tools.
We welcome you to accompany us on this lifelong journey in the pursuit of sharpness.
Our story.
Born out of necessity
Where we live and why
How and why we use these tools.
Hunting & Livestock
Butchering
Fishing
Our process.
Every blade we make is a completely unique piece of functional art. There is no standard manufacturing process for what we do. There are no templates used. We let the materials speak to us and tell us what they want to be. We listen to the needs of our custom cutlery clients and develop the perfect tool for their needs.
A typical project takes upwards of 20 hours to create. We start with steel and create the blade’s basic shape. It could be repurposed, found steel, or a piece of steel we’ve purchased with known qualities.
Once the shape is created, we do the initial rough grind of the bevels. The blade then goes through a heat treating process to harden the steel. The steel is then cleaned and put through a tempering process which is what will determine its final hardness.
From there it is hand sanded, and the handles are attached. The handles are then sanded and sealed with our Skarpari Handle Wax.
Materials.
The materials we use come from so many places it would be hard to catalog them all. We have people send us wood and steel from all over the world. We have clients who are arborists who save all of the “weird wood” they find. We have friends who are scrap metal collectors that bring us everything usable for blades.
We are blessed to live in a small community where people care about the environment and reusing materials.
We are incredibly mindful about the materials we use, the waste the process creates, and how we deal with that. We live in a magical wonderland that we know needs to be preserved. It’s why we live here.
