Knives Mezzaluna - Dough Cutter - Bread Knife
We have three types of knives available for your MasterChef.
Mezzaluna with hardwood block stand
This is an ancient style of blade, but its crescent shape makes it the perfect tool for that most modern of occupations - looking good in the kitchen!
Half-an-hour's practice with a mezzaluna will see you reducing massive piles of herbs and vegetables down to a fine dice; just like a professional (see mezzaluna tips) and the double handed rolling action will allow you to slice molten hot pizza and turkish bread with a flourish.
Like all good old knives (remember the ones your grandma had?), our mezzalunas are hand forged from tempered steel, so you have to show them a little love and care - see Mezzaluna Cleaning Instructions - but they look so good out on display and they are so easy and satisfying to use that they're worth lavishing a little care on.
Now, because our mezzalunas are hand made, no two blades are the same, but the blades have a cutting surface of roughly 35cm.
It's a machine. You can hack through a huge bunch of parsley like you're a mower and the parsley's the lawn, you can mince garlic like a food processor and in one motion you can sever a giant pizza. Hee-ya!
Whichever you chose, did I mention that they're fun? There's something really performance-like about that lovely crunchy sound you get rolling a mezzaluna through a pizza - like there should be a drum-roll accompaniment or something. And cutting things up, well forget your boring old kitchen knife, this is the way! With very little thought (and absolutely no risk to your fingers) you can't help but start rocking that blade faster and faster (like you've been asked to audition for The Bionic Woman) - be careful - you're in serious danger of having such a good time that you won't stop until you've reduced your herbs to mush!
Mezzaluna Standard Dimensions
Mezzaluna Features
- Oversized and gently rounded handles for good grip and comfort
- Fire hardened qwilla hardwood handles and block
- Tempered steel handforged blade - authentic and practical knife material
- Finely honed edge cuts cleanly (no bruising your herbs) and is easy to sharpen (see our FAQs page for How to Sharpen a Mezzaluna)
- Beautiful matching hardwood stand with brass nameplate
As well as the standard size referred to here, mezzalunas (and all other tools) can be made to your specifications AND/OR personalised with your wording stamped into the blade hot from the forge. Mezzalunas don’t really have a suitable space for engraving, though you can engrave the timber block stand.
Dough Cutter
Our dough cutter is a bit of a speciality item, more for pizza parlours, bakeries and (of course) the odd private customer obsessed with their dough…
Like everything else we do, it's built like a brick shithouse (or a Klingon battleaxe, if you prefer!). The normal ones you see around are only 15-20cm long and 5cm deep, but we reckon that anyone who would actually consider owning a dough cutter works with dough balls bigger than this, so our version is a lot longer and deeper.
When we took the picture above, I had just made our normal 5-6 pizza sized dough ball and you can see that (it's fun, BUT) it's almost overkill to use the cutter on this sized dough ball - it's with commercial sized dough or on a batch of buns or loaves, that it really comes into its own.
Of course, we couldn't resist doing the very Pete hanging ring - I've got mine on a nail on the inside of my baking cupboard.
In some places arourd the world our dough cutter may also be referred a bench scraper.
Dough Cutter Standard Dimensions
Dough Cutter Features
- Large stainless steel ring, suits a wide variety of hooks and hangers
- Oversized qwilla handle for good grip
- Food grade 1.6mm thick stainless steel plate
- Solid brass double sided knife screws - no wobbly handle or loose blade, ever
- Chamfered and sharpened working edge for easy cutting
- Pointed blade ends for dough pinking/slashing
As well as the standard size referred to here, dough cutters (and all other tools) can be made to your specifications. Tools can also be personalised with your wording engraved into the handles.
Bread Knife with slice guide - for both righties and lefties
Have you seen this type of bread knife before? For over 20 years, our friend Robyn Geddes used to make these and sold them at the world famous Eumundi Markets and if you make your own bread then they're just the best thing!
The built-in slice guide is just brilliant - each and every slice you cut is suddenly perfectly even and exactly the thickness you desire, from café-thick for toasting to wafer thin for cheese tasting or anywhere in between.
The seriously intimidating looking jagged-edged blade (I'm sorry, but 'scalloped' is just too pussy a word for these!) just demolishes whatever you use it on, no matter how hot the bread is and whether it's straight from the bread-maker and really soft, or straight from the oven and really crusty, these little demons just chew through it every time. As well as being practical, I reckon they look pretty good too. The streamlined timber handle is easy to hold and is designed to be suitable for both righties and lefties. A lot of these knives from other places are only for righties, which is a bit silly! Truely the best bread knife to get for your sour dough bread making friends.
Also, whilst the default timber is qwilla (so it’s a nice mid toned brown and matches the rest of the tools), a lot of the time, these babies end up living inside the house/in the kitchen proper, not out with the rest of the gang. Anyway, because it’s not going in your oven and doesn’t need the spesh qwilla characteristics to survive the heat and the elements, we also keep some red toned and pale toned timber about so if you want to, you can choose timber in tones that will match your kitchen or cutting boards. Most of the time we have local river gum (red toned timber), and either spotted gum or yellow box (pale toned fellas) available for you to choose from.
The selection varies however because this timber is from local trees that have fallen over in the floods and which Pete has salvaged and kiln dried himself. Don’t worry though, given how much rain we’ve had here the last couple of years, there’ll be something in our store to suit your timber trim for sure!
See our bread knife FAQ's for hints, tips and care instructions.
Bread Knife Standard Dimensions
Bread Knife Features
- Solid handles that are easy to hold and a choice of qwilla (to match the rest of the tools and knives we make) or red or pale tones of local hardwood timber to match your kitchen or cutting boards
- Built in slicing guide - every slice exactly how you want it
- Serious jagged-edged stainless steel blade glides through any bread and never needs sharpening
- 25 mm stainless steel screws hold blade secure
As well as the standard size referred to here, bread knives (and all other tools) can be made to your specifications. Tools can also be personalised with your wording engraved into the handles.
