Feinschmecker x Güde

Like all knives in the Feinschmecker series, the blade of the Feinschmecker Apple Wood series is hand-forged from a single piece of chrome-vanadium-molybdenum knife steel. More than 40 additional manual steps are required to create a unique piece of Solingen knife-making art. Due to their wooden handles, these knives should not be placed in the dishwasher. The blade is stainless, ice-hardened, and naturally hand-sharpened.

The blade material of knives must meet requirements that are sometimes contradictory. It is therefore crucial to weigh up the various requirements and ensure an optimum solution. The knives in GÜDE Feinschmecker Apfelholz series GÜDE made from chrome-molybdenum-vanadium knife steel. This steel perfectly meets the sometimes conflicting requirements with an optimum hardness of approx. 57-58 HRc (Rockwell).

The blade The hardness of the knife steel, at 57-58 HRc, is perfectly balanced—not too hard and not too soft for the various requirements that a good knife must meet. This degree of hardness makes the blade torsion-resistant, ensuring that the knife can be guided precisely and cuts accurately. Flexible blades, such as those found on the filleting knife in the Gourmet Apple Wood series, can be ground very thin despite their hardness and are perfect for filleting fish.

The handle wood – apple wood Apple wood is a fine fruit wood with a warm, honey-yellow to reddish-brown color. The characteristic grain makes each knife unique. As a hardwood, it is particularly durable and resistant to wear and tear.

Apple wood comes from old fruit trees and orchards. After decades of growth, the wood develops its special density and stability. The natural color varies depending on the age of the tree and its location—from light, cream-colored tones to darker, reddish-brown shades with a fine grain.

Wood is a natural material with a wide variety of colors and grains. This results in different appearances within a series of knives with wooden handles. Apple wood handles can vary from a light honey tone to a darker reddish brown. These natural color variations and the lively grain are characteristic of apple wood and make each knife a unique piece.

All knives in the Gourmet Apple Wood series are traditionally drop-forged from a single piece of steel. This traditional drop-forging technology results in particularly high material strength, even when the knife is subjected to dynamic stress.

During forging, the entire blank is heated in the die until it glows red, and then shaped between the two dies. In further detailed manual steps GÜDE the blank forged in the die is transformed into a unique product from the GÜDE knife factory GÜDE handmade.

The process in detail:

After forging, the knives are punched out of the forged blank and then roughly ground, calibrated, and cleaned. This is followed by ice hardening, in which the knives are cooled to -80 °C to improve the structure of the blade steel.

In the next step, the knives are tempered in two stages. Tempering is a term used by Solingen knife makers and means that the knife is heated again to make it break-proof.

Now the blade is pre-ground, followed by pre-grinding of the knife back. This is followed by fine grinding of the knife back and point grinding of the bolster. Solingen knife makers refer to the bolster as the thickening between the blade and the handle and at the end of the handle.

The inner sides of the two handle half-shells are now pre-ground. Pre-grinding the front and rear crooks takes another five steps. Only then can the blade be finely ground. Solingen knife makers call this"pliesten."This is how the blade gets its distinctive surface.

The apple wood handle scales with their characteristic grain are now fitted to the left and right sides of the knife handle. The holes for the rivets are then drilled. A countersink must be drilled into the holes for the rivet heads.

The two wooden handle scales and the tang made from GÜDE are now firmly joined together with rivets. A further five or so steps are required to grind the handle scales onto the tang and the crooks so that the transitions between wood and steel are smooth.

After the center decorative rivet and the fine polishing of the handles, the knife is sharpened. The knife edge, also known as the bevel, is ground and polished so that it glides more easily through the material being cut. The GÜDE is etched onto the blade.

Cleaning and quality control are the final steps in the process. The knives are then placed in protective sleeves and are ready for shipping.

The Feinschmecker Apple Wood series combines two different design philosophies in one series – for different applications and preferences.

Classic shape with double crop

Most knives in the Gourmet Apple Wood series follow the tried-and-tested classic design with the typical double bolster. Bolster is the term used by Solingen knife makers to describe the thickening of the blade steel that is achieved during forging.

The front bolster between the blade and handle protects the fingers and also serves as a counterweight. The additional bolster at the end of the handle gives these knives their balanced feel and guarantees comfortable, fatigue-free working.

All classic knives in the series have a full tang – the tang runs from the blade to the end of the handle. Completely visible along the entire length of the handle, both from above and below, the full tang proves that the knives are forged from a single piece. No material transition, no seam.

Innovative Synchros without a gooseneck

The carving knife (and other speciality knives) in the Gourmet Apple Wood series feature the award-winning Synchros. This innovative shape deliberately dispenses with the bolster, creating a seamless transition from the handle to the blade.

The special features of the Synchros:

• Flexible gripping positions: Thanks to the unique design, the position of the hand and fingers can be freely selected—whether in a normal grip, overhand grip, or hybrid grip. The hand and knife are always synchronized.
• Raised grip position: Creates a safe distance from the cutting board and concentrates the force optimally on the blade.
• Full tang: Forms a single unit with the handle for perfect balance.
• Uniform handle length: The convex apple wood handles are all 12.5 cm long, regardless of the blade length, and thus fit perfectly in the human hand.
• Ground right down to the edge: The blade is ground all the way through, guaranteeing maximum cutting efficiency.

This is particularly true of the carving knife: the blade is very finely and thinly ground from the center to the tip, which ensures a high degree of flexibility in this area. This makes it perfect for cutting wafer-thin slices—ideal as a meat, ham, or even filleting knife.

Die forging technology creates the degree of freedom in design that makes both designs possible. Both the classic double-cropped shape and the innovative Synchros with its flowing transition are only possible using the die forging process. This impressively explains why GÜDE has remained loyal GÜDE proven and traditional technology since its founding in 1910, now in its fourth generation.