The Cutlers’ Award
The Award
The Worshipful Company of Cutlers is very excited to establish a new award offering help and support to knife makers and bladesmiths with a particular focus on culinary knives.
Top Image: Matthew Walder
Background
The Cutlers’ Award has grown from a passionate desire to revisit the roots of the Worshipful Company which historically focused on the artisan bladesmith. We have become aware that over the past decade, there is renewed interest in the craft and yet, there exists too great a number of obstacles: lack of training opportunities, apprenticeships and mentoring schemes, not to mention the very high costs of tools, materials and equipment.
The Cutlers’ Award aims to support one culinary knife maker to develop professionally by offering financial support for mentorship and craft skill development.
Above: Gareth Hacker
The Award
This new award will be given to one knife maker specialising in culinary knives who demonstrates how funding and mentoring will make a positive impact to their craft and business.
The prize includes a £2,500 grant of which £500 must be spent on mentoring.
Panellists for the award will include representatives of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers’, and working professionals from the cutlery field. They will expect to see a sample of your work. The winner will be invited to attend a dinner at Cutlers’ Hall in the Autumn of 2023 to receive their prize.
Objective
To take away a barrier and offer a step forward to someone who is pursuing culinary knife making as a profession.
Image: Matthew Walder
Eligibility
You must be:
18 years old by the time of interview
Make knives for culinary use
Currently trading as a knife maker, whether part time or full time
Be a UK Resident
Expectations from award winner
Be an ambassador for the award, encouraging others to apply next year
Feed in to our reporting and be willing to reflect on the impact of the prize
Provide evidence of how the award budget was spent
Attend all mentorship meetings
Complete all mentorship/training and expend funds within the course of the year
Image: Matthew Walder
Guidance for applicants
What are we looking for?
Be specific about what you want to use the award money for, both the funding and mentoring, and how it will benefit your business and craft.
We want to see evidence of craft skill; a commitment to professional growth and creative development; and what difference receiving the award will make to your business and craft development now.
Funding
You can propose to use the funding however it will most benefit you, there are no ‘right’ answers, just convince us why it is right for you at this time. Consider tools, equipment, additional mentorship, travel for research and development, exhibition budget or other items you might need to help you move forward in your profession. Anything from equipment specific to knife making to camera equipment to help showcase your work, money to develop a website or a course to help you develop a specific part of your craft. Explain to us how this funding will help you reach a goal and what difference will it make?
A key component of this prize is mentor support. In what areas do you feel you would benefit from the advice and support of a mentor? Be clear about what your objectives are and what you hope to gain from it. If you already have someone in mind, let us know- and if not, we can help you identify and approach someone.
Image: Matthew Walder
The Competition will be judged by Owen Bush, Grace Horne, and Blenheim Forge, along with a representative of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers, assisted by Holly Loftus and Paul Stoddart.
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OWEN BUSH
Owen Bush is a bladesmith working out of his forge in South East London. He has been forging blades for 27 years. Owen specialises in pattern-welding, forging historic pieces from the Saxon, Viking and medieval period as well as exploring the realms of fantasy and more modern kitchen cutlery. He also runs a bladesmithing school teaching knifemaking, axe making, swordsmithing and damascus steel.
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BLENHEIM FORGE
Originating and based in Peckham, South London; Blenheim Forge is the steel workshop of bladesmiths Jon Warshawsky, James Ross-Harris and Richard Warner, in which they create hand-forged quality kitchen knives. Self-taught; knife making began as a hobby that James Ross-Harris and Jon Warshawsky cultivated in their back garden on a hand-made forge, fuelled by a blend of charcoal.
Over the years they have perfected their craft, focusing on fine-tuning the process of hand-forging in order to create knives of the highest character and performance.
Shortly after setting up, Blenheim Forge expanded to include machine-making extraordinaire Richard Warner, and moved into Arch 229, Blenheim Grove; a railway arch with a long history of metalwork artistry. Blenheim Forge now sells their knives to chefs and cooking-enthusiasts around the world.
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KINGDOM FORGE
Paul Stoddart founded Kingdom Forge nearly ten years ago, and has since undertaken not only blacksmithing and bladesmithing work for private clients and the film industry alike, but also teaching the art of blacksmithing and axe making on a weekly basis, including at the University of Birmingham.
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GRACE HORNE
Grace Horne moved to Sheffield in 1993 to start making folding pocket knives. A circuitous career path took her through an MA (Knives & Edged Tools) and a PhD (Exotic Laminated Steel) at Sheffield Hallam University in the Metalwork and Jewellery Dept - where she still teaches as an Associate Lecturer. In the last few years, she has been completely absorbed by scissors - learning how to make them, documenting the process and encouraging other people to have a go. Her current side project is documenting the Sheffield Museum Trust’s entire collection of scissors.
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HOLLY LOFTUS
Holly Loftus is a bladesmith producing hand forged culinary knives. Each knife is entirely handmade in house, using high carbon steels and native hardwoods. In 2020 Holly was recipient of the Newby Trust Craft Excellence Award and has since established her business, Loftus Knives, and moved into her own workshop in London's prestigious craft studios, Cockpit Arts.
Application
The closing date for application is 30 August 2023.