Michel Bras 5-Piece Knife Set with Maple Block 7-Slot

With their common goal of creating the best knives possible Michel Bras and KAI discovered, as their friendship deepened, that they had many other things in common besides knives. Just as Michel loves his birthplace Aubrac, the source of his inspiration, so the spirit of KAI is rooted in the Mino region and in the skilled craftsmen who live there. Both the high plateau of Aubrac and the plain of Mino lie inland and are blessed by an abundant nature. Both Laguiole and Seki are famed for their excellent knives. And finally Michel Bras’ father was also a blacksmith. What Michel Bras expects of a knife is first that it be “sharp and beautiful,” and second that it be “well-balanced and fit firmly in the hand. “Cutting herbs with a blunt knife is like wounding them,” Michel points out. “If the herbs are wounded,” he says, “their blood is lost, along with their beauty and savor. They just wither and die.” The act of cutting means finding harmony for Michel Bras. He expresses this using the example of Japanese archery. “In archery, the arrow becomes a part of the archer’s body, and if the archer lets go of it just when he feels he has become one with it, he knows he will hit the bull’s eye even if he’s blind-folded. For all those who love cooking: A delicately polished sharpness, an effortless feel in the hand when used and a refined beauty. Such are the hallmarks of this collection of knives designed by Michel Bras and manufactured by KAI. Achieving a perfect fusion of beauty and usefulness, of esthetics and gastronomy, was the goal that this great cook set for himself. Michel Bras knives are the ideal companions of all those who love cooking.

• All knives are hand assembled to exacting specifications.
• Matte-finish blades are composed of three stainless-steel layers: a hardened VG-10 core sandwiched between two layers of more flexible steel for increased durability and resistance.
• Blades are coated in titanium to enhance their anti oxidation properties.
• Each blade is etched with a unique serial number and Bras’s signature emblem of cistre, the delicate Alpine fennel that grows in the hills above his Aubrac restaurant.
• For quick identification, each handle is inscribed with the knife item number (1–7), signifying the blade’s form and function.
• Black PakkaWood handles are designed in the traditional Japanese chestnut shape, to sit comfortably in the hand.
• Set includes:
• 3″ sheep’s-foot paring knife (#1)
• 6″ utility knife (#2)
• 9″ hollow-ground slicing knife (#3)
• 6″, 9″ santokus (#4, #5 )
• Maple Block Maple Block 7-Slot (#15)
• Made in Japan