We received a thoughtful email a few months back from a woman who had lost her son in a car accident. Her son's best friend was seriously injured in the accident and, after much recovery, has reworked his future into the culinary arts. His forearm and wrist is now supported by titanium, and he has very limited mobility in the wrist. The woman employed us to fit her son's friend for a knife because all the standard knife types require wrist flexibility. She brought him to the shop for a fitting and here is the result of our discussion:
Over the last several years, David and I have come to understand that each hand is unique and that a knife may be loved by one and disliked by another. It's one of the main reasons that we build knives to the person for the most part.
After the fitting, David and I were both thinking the same thing: we like working out of a paradigm that views a hand with a titanium support like every other hand--instead of a cause for increased prices or special treatment. Ours is not the industrial model which homogenizes, but a model that delights in complexity and diversity.
Being a small part in this family's story is a privilege for us.
-LS