MKS Knives

For most people who experience a revelation, the path is clear -- see God, become holy man, see Jim Morrison, organize concert -- but what happens when you see...Kitchen Knife? Answering to the sharply divine, MKS Knives.

From a Cambridge furniture designer who took a bladesmithing class and became reborn a devout cutlery man, MKS hand makes custom knives heat-treated to an appropriate hardness in Idaho, manufactured in batches of 100 in Italy, and then fashioned with injection-molded grips styled after either four colors of a Schwinn's shiny contoured handlebars or, for added radness, the black-padded no-slip rubber of a BMX. The latest batch includes the medium-sized Petty and a short 8" Chef's Knife, both made out of a Swedish steel called 13c26 Sandvik, which combines the toughness of traditional carbon steel with the hardness of a German model, minus the crushing insistence it marry Seal. Other more classic 440c alloy stainless steel blades include the Paring and Deep Paring, the light, flexible 8" Fillet (great for OCD tasks like sashimi), and the 6.5" Boning, which'll take apart a chicken or rabbit faster than it takes you to think of a good boning joke. Much faster. No pressure.

Since every family has an odd-looking weirdo in it, MKS also offers the herb-chopping Mezzaluna, a stumpy axe so menacing that the only vision you'll have is you, cooking with nine fingers.