"With food, as soon as the structure of the cell is ruptured, it starts to rot. With these knives, the food doesn’t even know it’s been cut.” Internationally-acclaimed master knifemaker Patrick Brennan merges traditional craft with contemporary design.
The result? Blades that cut so cleanly, your apple slices won’t go brown. “Normal knives drag,” he says simply. “Not these. They glide through food.”
Sold under the name Patrick Joseph, these knives are once-off pieces. They also take a lot of time to make, from 40 hours to six months, depending on the materials, the type of knife and the level of detail required. Reflecting the work, they don’t come cheap, costing from €400 to ‘the-sky-is-the-limit’ for an extra special commission.
He currently has a beauty of a Damasteel high-performance chef knife with a hybrid Japanese Wa-style handle, finished with sterling silver, on his website for €4,600.
“This is functional art,” he explains. “It’s something unique and original. After all, people go out and spend €40K on a watch, and no one asks why.”
Watches may also be useful, but they’re not going to help you dice onions into confetti, slice steak across the grain or prepare tuna for sashimi.
With a knife at this level, the precision and craft of the maker all come into focus on the sleek, sharp blade, which has the ability to transform a mundane job like chopping ingredients into a pleasurable, almost meditative action.
It’s the sweet spot where form and function come together to make something that is so much more than the sum of its parts.
In recent years, knifemaking in Ireland and across the world has undergone a revival. Patrick’s knives are in constant demand, as is the man himself, who appears regularly at prestigious knife events all over the world.
When Irish Country Living visited his workshop, he was preparing for the Texas Blade Show and had recently received an invitation to be part of the Homo Faber Guide – a project by the Geneva-based Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, which celebrates and promotes master craftsmanship in Europe.
It’s quite an achievement for someone who became interested in knifemaking as a result of a stint in a neurological rehabilitation programme. Patrick, whose parents are from Kilkenny and Galway, grew up in Birmingham.
Living and working there as a builder and gas engineer, he and his wife Tammi had two girls and a busy, normal life until 2010, when Patrick had a catastrophic, life-changing accident.
A motorbike crash resulted in his back being broken in five places and a traumatic brain injury. He spent most of two years in bed. “I wasn’t in a good place,” he says: the physical injuries also resulted in chronic fatigue issues and depression. Learning craft as part of his rehab was where things started to turn around.
In therapy, he got hooked on leatherwork, which he still enjoys: it’s something that’s still an element of his work, designing and making bespoke vegetable-tanned leather sheaths for knives. The next stage of therapy was cooking. Patrick decided that he needed “a decent knife, but I didn’t want to buy one.”
Game for trying a new craft, he tried to teach himself using books and YouTube videos. It was, he says now, “a waste of time. To learn how to make a knife, you need to actually do it, to develop the instinct.”
Having physically recovered and relocated with his family to the countryside of Chapel Hill near Thomastown, in his father’s home county of Kilkenny, his next step was a deep dive into the world of knifemaking.
In 2016, he spent six months in America travelling and learning from masters like the world-renowned, Kentucky-based Gil Hibben.
“He’s the godfather,” says Patrick, still grateful for the welcome that he received there from Gil and his son, Wes. “He’s one of the oldest and most prolific knifemakers.”
Gill is also responsible for bringing the craft of bladesmithing to wider attention over a career that started in 1957. You’ve probably already seen a Gil Hibben knife: his pieces have appeared in films like Rambo, the Star Trek franchise, Under Seige and Natural Born Killers.
After spending that intense half-year learning the knifemakers’ craft, from blacksmithing to blades, Patrick sold – or, more accurately, bartered – his first knife before he even arrived home.
A $1,000USD Josh Lamb tattoo in San Diego was paid for with one of the knives he had made during his apprenticeships, and a fellow customer, seeing this, ordered another on the spot.
A knife can have 60 layers – 180 or 540, depending on what you want. The tighter the pattern on the blade, the more folds it has
“I came back and I built this place,” Patrick says, gesturing around at the impressive workshop in Kilkenny, a tidy building packed with the equipment of his craft: a modern gas-powered forge, which runs at a breath-taking 1000°C – “it’s neat and efficient, a very clean burn which is more efficient for steel” – a power hammer, an industrial 50-tonne metal press alongside a traditional blacksmithing anvil, lots of hammers, and knives in all states of completion – from thick metal bars to rough shapes.
It’s the kind of spot that gives a photographer visions, with a place for everything, from the peg-board at the back, festooned with tools, to the multiple tongs hanging in front of that anvil: “there’s a different set of tongs for every stage,” says Patrick.
That process starts with creating the raw material, and Patrick “takes things extremely seriously when it comes to steel.” Using traditional techniques, he makes his own blend of Damascus steel by layering high-carbon and high-nickel steel blanks. Welding these together into what is called a billet, he uses the heat of the forge to create a solid, homogenous block.
It’s a process that he compares to playing with different colours of plasticine: twisting, bending and folding, using heat, pressure and time.
“A knife can have 60 layers,” he says, “180 or 540, depending on what you want. The tighter the pattern on the blade, the more folds it has.”
After Patrick is satisfied with the layering, he moves on to profiling, which entails developing the basic blade shape through hammering and grinding.
“I grind knives so the weight and strength are kept in the middle,” he explains. The refining stage, which involves grinding and polishing, can take 40 hours. “It’s the secret to great blade geometry, which makes the knife cut like a laser through different materials; reducing pressure on the cutting edge so it will glide through [food], keeping it sharper for longer and making it a truly high-performance knife.”
When it comes to handles, Patrick is adamant that all materials must be ethically sourced. Bog oak is a particular favourite, and he has a special stash of mammoth bone. I couldn’t resist touching this when he showed it to us. He also uses precious metals and gemstones.
In 2021, he completed a BA in jewellery and goldsmithing run by Design and Crafts Council Ireland, enabling him to fuse fine jewellery techniques with his knifemaking practice. At the moment, one of the knives that he’s working on will have a silver handle inlaid with diamonds, gold and a Tahitian pearl.
Not only do people want to buy knives from Patrick, but they want to learn how to make these unique tools for themselves. While AI is going to have an impact on many jobs in the future, this is the kind of craft that cannot be replicated by computers.
Today, Patrick’s knives are sold all over the world and he has won numerous awards. \ Philip Doyle
As Patrick demonstrates, it is possible to make a living from a job that combines craft and creativity. When we visit, he has an apprentice, Finn Wallace, learning by his side in the workshop. He also runs regular intensive knife-making courses for all levels, from beginners to advanced makers.
“Anyone can learn,” he believes, “Once you start knifemaking, there’s no going back.”
After just nine years in business, Patrick has become a member of the (very select) Knifemakers’ Guild (with a total of only 300 knifemaker members from all around the world), the American Bladesmith Society and he has won many awards for his knives.
As we escape the heat and intensity of the workshop for the peace of the green countryside, we ask Patrick what makes his knives stand apart.
“I don’t know,” he says thoughtfully. “But I put so much passion and meticulous precision into every aspect of my work. I think that people can identify that. I’ve put everything into it.”
And, with that, he returns inside to his steel.
Try before you buy at the Patrick Joseph Studio in Kilkenny’s Castle Yard. Knives are also available online at patrickjoseph.ie.
How to take care of your knives
The dishwasher is a knife killer. Avoid. Always use wooden chopping boards. Store knives on a magnet - steel against steel in a drawer is a bad idea. Do not wet the handle. Wash the blade under hot running water, dry on a towel and put the knife straight back up on the magnet. Read more
Preserving the past with food conservationist Max Jones
Holly Loftus: 'the stereotypical image of a blacksmith is often a big man'
"With food, as soon as the structure of the cell is ruptured, it starts to rot. With these knives, the food doesn’t even know it’s been cut.” Internationally-acclaimed master knifemaker Patrick Brennan merges traditional craft with contemporary design.
The result? Blades that cut so cleanly, your apple slices won’t go brown. “Normal knives drag,” he says simply. “Not these. They glide through food.”
Sold under the name Patrick Joseph, these knives are once-off pieces. They also take a lot of time to make, from 40 hours to six months, depending on the materials, the type of knife and the level of detail required. Reflecting the work, they don’t come cheap, costing from €400 to ‘the-sky-is-the-limit’ for an extra special commission.
He currently has a beauty of a Damasteel high-performance chef knife with a hybrid Japanese Wa-style handle, finished with sterling silver, on his website for €4,600.
“This is functional art,” he explains. “It’s something unique and original. After all, people go out and spend €40K on a watch, and no one asks why.”
Watches may also be useful, but they’re not going to help you dice onions into confetti, slice steak across the grain or prepare tuna for sashimi.
With a knife at this level, the precision and craft of the maker all come into focus on the sleek, sharp blade, which has the ability to transform a mundane job like chopping ingredients into a pleasurable, almost meditative action.
It’s the sweet spot where form and function come together to make something that is so much more than the sum of its parts.
In recent years, knifemaking in Ireland and across the world has undergone a revival. Patrick’s knives are in constant demand, as is the man himself, who appears regularly at prestigious knife events all over the world.
When Irish Country Living visited his workshop, he was preparing for the Texas Blade Show and had recently received an invitation to be part of the Homo Faber Guide – a project by the Geneva-based Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, which celebrates and promotes master craftsmanship in Europe.
It’s quite an achievement for someone who became interested in knifemaking as a result of a stint in a neurological rehabilitation programme. Patrick, whose parents are from Kilkenny and Galway, grew up in Birmingham.
Living and working there as a builder and gas engineer, he and his wife Tammi had two girls and a busy, normal life until 2010, when Patrick had a catastrophic, life-changing accident.
A motorbike crash resulted in his back being broken in five places and a traumatic brain injury. He spent most of two years in bed. “I wasn’t in a good place,” he says: the physical injuries also resulted in chronic fatigue issues and depression. Learning craft as part of his rehab was where things started to turn around.
In therapy, he got hooked on leatherwork, which he still enjoys: it’s something that’s still an element of his work, designing and making bespoke vegetable-tanned leather sheaths for knives. The next stage of therapy was cooking. Patrick decided that he needed “a decent knife, but I didn’t want to buy one.”
Game for trying a new craft, he tried to teach himself using books and YouTube videos. It was, he says now, “a waste of time. To learn how to make a knife, you need to actually do it, to develop the instinct.”
Having physically recovered and relocated with his family to the countryside of Chapel Hill near Thomastown, in his father’s home county of Kilkenny, his next step was a deep dive into the world of knifemaking.
In 2016, he spent six months in America travelling and learning from masters like the world-renowned, Kentucky-based Gil Hibben.
“He’s the godfather,” says Patrick, still grateful for the welcome that he received there from Gil and his son, Wes. “He’s one of the oldest and most prolific knifemakers.”
Gill is also responsible for bringing the craft of bladesmithing to wider attention over a career that started in 1957. You’ve probably already seen a Gil Hibben knife: his pieces have appeared in films like Rambo, the Star Trek franchise, Under Seige and Natural Born Killers.
After spending that intense half-year learning the knifemakers’ craft, from blacksmithing to blades, Patrick sold – or, more accurately, bartered – his first knife before he even arrived home.
A $1,000USD Josh Lamb tattoo in San Diego was paid for with one of the knives he had made during his apprenticeships, and a fellow customer, seeing this, ordered another on the spot.
A knife can have 60 layers – 180 or 540, depending on what you want. The tighter the pattern on the blade, the more folds it has
“I came back and I built this place,” Patrick says, gesturing around at the impressive workshop in Kilkenny, a tidy building packed with the equipment of his craft: a modern gas-powered forge, which runs at a breath-taking 1000°C – “it’s neat and efficient, a very clean burn which is more efficient for steel” – a power hammer, an industrial 50-tonne metal press alongside a traditional blacksmithing anvil, lots of hammers, and knives in all states of completion – from thick metal bars to rough shapes.
It’s the kind of spot that gives a photographer visions, with a place for everything, from the peg-board at the back, festooned with tools, to the multiple tongs hanging in front of that anvil: “there’s a different set of tongs for every stage,” says Patrick.
That process starts with creating the raw material, and Patrick “takes things extremely seriously when it comes to steel.” Using traditional techniques, he makes his own blend of Damascus steel by layering high-carbon and high-nickel steel blanks. Welding these together into what is called a billet, he uses the heat of the forge to create a solid, homogenous block.
It’s a process that he compares to playing with different colours of plasticine: twisting, bending and folding, using heat, pressure and time.
“A knife can have 60 layers,” he says, “180 or 540, depending on what you want. The tighter the pattern on the blade, the more folds it has.”
After Patrick is satisfied with the layering, he moves on to profiling, which entails developing the basic blade shape through hammering and grinding.
“I grind knives so the weight and strength are kept in the middle,” he explains. The refining stage, which involves grinding and polishing, can take 40 hours. “It’s the secret to great blade geometry, which makes the knife cut like a laser through different materials; reducing pressure on the cutting edge so it will glide through [food], keeping it sharper for longer and making it a truly high-performance knife.”
When it comes to handles, Patrick is adamant that all materials must be ethically sourced. Bog oak is a particular favourite, and he has a special stash of mammoth bone. I couldn’t resist touching this when he showed it to us. He also uses precious metals and gemstones.
In 2021, he completed a BA in jewellery and goldsmithing run by Design and Crafts Council Ireland, enabling him to fuse fine jewellery techniques with his knifemaking practice. At the moment, one of the knives that he’s working on will have a silver handle inlaid with diamonds, gold and a Tahitian pearl.
Not only do people want to buy knives from Patrick, but they want to learn how to make these unique tools for themselves. While AI is going to have an impact on many jobs in the future, this is the kind of craft that cannot be replicated by computers.
Today, Patrick’s knives are sold all over the world and he has won numerous awards. \ Philip Doyle
As Patrick demonstrates, it is possible to make a living from a job that combines craft and creativity. When we visit, he has an apprentice, Finn Wallace, learning by his side in the workshop. He also runs regular intensive knife-making courses for all levels, from beginners to advanced makers.
“Anyone can learn,” he believes, “Once you start knifemaking, there’s no going back.”
After just nine years in business, Patrick has become a member of the (very select) Knifemakers’ Guild (with a total of only 300 knifemaker members from all around the world), the American Bladesmith Society and he has won many awards for his knives.
As we escape the heat and intensity of the workshop for the peace of the green countryside, we ask Patrick what makes his knives stand apart.
“I don’t know,” he says thoughtfully. “But I put so much passion and meticulous precision into every aspect of my work. I think that people can identify that. I’ve put everything into it.”
And, with that, he returns inside to his steel.
Try before you buy at the Patrick Joseph Studio in Kilkenny’s Castle Yard. Knives are also available online at patrickjoseph.ie.
How to take care of your knives
The dishwasher is a knife killer. Avoid. Always use wooden chopping boards. Store knives on a magnet - steel against steel in a drawer is a bad idea. Do not wet the handle. Wash the blade under hot running water, dry on a towel and put the knife straight back up on the magnet. Read more
Preserving the past with food conservationist Max Jones
Holly Loftus: 'the stereotypical image of a blacksmith is often a big man'
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