Among the finest hand-forged blades in the world. The sharpest in Bohol.
Japanese spring steel. Handles of carabao horn that took a quarter-century to grow. Sheaths of hand-picked rosewood, bound in brass. Made one at a time, to your order, by a family that has forged for three generations.
Commissioned by chefsJordy Navarra · Angelo Comsti
Collected inUSA · Switzerland · Canada · Australia
Every bladeHand-forged, hand-ground, stone-finished
The claim, and the evidence
Why these belong among the best blades in the world.
A big claim needs evidence. Here is ours: five things about a Bohol blade that a factory knife, and most hand-made knives, cannot say.
01
Provenance you can trace
Most “handmade” blades sold online start as anonymous bar stock. Ours start as the original-equipment leaf springs of named Japanese vehicles, chosen because a spring that has flexed under a truck for twenty years has already proven its steel.
02
Materials nobody else bothers with
Carabao horn that took twenty-five years to grow, rosewood chosen plank by plank, bronze pins and sheet brass. In the proprietor’s words, the only shop in the province that uses them.
03
Straight by hand, not by jig
A factory sets a machine and every blade comes out the same. Here the bevel is ground flat and even for the full length of the edge by a smith who has done it ten thousand times. Walang mintis: no misses.
04
Sharpness you can test
Every blade leaves able to slice a sheet of paper held in the air. If it ever stops, send it back; we resharpen for life for the cost of shipping.
05
A lineage, not a label
The craft passed from the Caybot clan of Corella to Eugenio Prieto, to his son Teodaldo whose “TP” stamp reached Mindanao, to the forge that makes your blade. You can visit it.
Hand-forgedJapanese spring steelCarabao hornPhilippine rosewoodBrass & bronzeMade to orderSikatuna · BoholShips worldwideHand-forgedJapanese spring steelCarabao hornPhilippine rosewoodBrass & bronzeMade to orderSikatuna · BoholShips worldwide
What goes into a blade
Four materials. No substitutes.
The rarer the material, the harder it is to source, and the more of a story it carries. Everything here is chosen because it is the best thing for the job, not because it is convenient.
01 The steel
Spring steel that already survived a hard life.
The blades begin as the leaf springs of old Japanese vehicles: the original-equipment springs from Toyota Corollas and Isuzu Elf trucks, which the smiths insist on because the steel is clean and consistent. A leaf spring has already spent years flexing under load without cracking. That is exactly the temperament a blade needs.
It is cut, heated in a charcoal forge and drawn out by hammer. Nothing is cast, nothing is stamped from sheet.
1bar of steel per blade, drawn out by hand
02 The horn
A handle that took a carabao twenty-five years to grow.
Handles are carved from the horn of mature carabao, the Philippine water buffalo. A horn solid enough to carve takes twenty to twenty-five years to form, and each animal gives only two. Horn is dense, warm in the hand and will not split like wood or sweat like plastic.
Each handle is shaped to its blade: faceted for a kitchen set, hooked for a field knife, turned straight for a steak knife. No two are the same because no two horns are.
2handles per animal. That is the whole supply.
03 The wood
Rosewood picked plank by plank for the sheath.
Every blade ships in its own sheath, carved in two halves from Philippine rosewood or tindalo, chosen for the figure in the grain. The halves are pinned, not glued, so a sheath can be opened and cleaned decades from now.
Rosewood is also offered as a handle, for those who prefer wood to horn.
2halves, pinned in brass, carved to the blade
04 The fittings
Brass and bronze where others use nothing at all.
Ferrules, bands, throats and chapes are cut from sheet brass. Pins are bronze. Collectors know the difference between brass and aluminium at a glance, and so do we. In the words of the proprietor: we are the only ones in the province who bother.
0aluminium. Anywhere.
The process
Seven steps, all of them by hand.
Factory knives are set on a computer and come out identical. Ours come out straight because a smith made them straight, and sharper because the last hour of every blade is spent on a stone.
01
Source
Original Japanese leaf springs, mature horn, rosewood planks. The rarer the material, the more story it carries.
02
Forge
The bar is brought to heat in charcoal and drawn out under the hammer to the profile of the blade.
03
Shape
Bevels are set by eye and file. The forge scale is left on the flats of black-finish blades.
04
Harden
Heated, quenched and tempered so the edge takes a keen angle and the spine stays tough.
05
Grind
A flat, even bevel ground the full length of the edge. No jig, no CNC, no wobble.
06
Sharpen
Finished on stones until it will cut a sheet of paper from the air. This is the step the shop is known for.
07
Fit
Horn or wood is carved to the tang, seated with a brass ferrule, and the sheath is carved to the finished blade.
The order book
Forty a month. Each one spoken for.
One family forges every Bohol blade, and the forge makes about 40 a month. Nothing is made for stock: a blade enters the book when its deposit is paid and leaves it about 30 days later, finished, photographed and shipped. Places go in the order deposits arrive.
“Whoever commissions the first one, I name the knife after them.”
Cid Cempron · Proprietor, Bohol Blades
The Comsti knife was drawn to the specifications of chef and food writer Angelo Comsti; the shop had never made one like it, made ten, and has not stopped since. When Jordy Navarra of Toyo Eatery asked for a special knife, Bohol Blades built a kitchen at the forge and named both after him. Commission the first of something, and your name stays on it.
In good hands
What the people who use them say.
Chefs, writers and collectors have carried these blades into kitchens and onto walls across the world. Every word below is attributable.
“And in case you’re wondering, the blades are very, very sharp. To prove his point, he asks for a piece of paper and deftly cuts it like it was nothing.”
“Commissioned a knife to his own specification; the shop had never made one like it, made ten, and the Comsti knife has been in the collection ever since.”
“Visited the forge and asked for a special knife. Bohol Blades built a kitchen at the smithy and named the knife and the kitchen after him.”
The story
A philosopher, a forge, and a stamp that reached Mindanao.
Cid Cempron came to Sikatuna for the history and stayed for the steel. He found the Prieto family, third-generation smiths whose “TP” stamp was known across the Visayas and as far as Mindanao, asked them for an all-purpose blade, and could not stop his friends from asking for one too.
In 2018 he made it formal: he would bring the designs and the best materials, and the family would keep doing what it had done since the patriarch Eugenio learned the craft from the Caybot clan of Corella. Bohol Blades is that partnership.
A commission is an act of trust in people you have not met. These are the four things we owe you in return.
Made right, or made again
If your blade arrives with a fault in steel, horn or wood, we repair or replace it at our cost, shipping both ways.
Sharp for life
Every blade leaves able to slice paper in the air. Send it back any time and we resharpen it for the cost of shipping.
Insured to your door
Tracked international courier, insured for the full value, oiled and sheathed in a wooden box. Damage in transit is our problem, not yours.
Numbered and signed
Each blade ships with a numbered certificate signed at the forge, naming the smith, the steel and the horn.
First word
New designs, and the rare ready-made piece, go to the list before anyone else.
A short note from the forge when something new is drawn, and first refusal on the few blades made without a commission. No more than two emails a month.
Commissions
One of one. Yours.
Your length, your edge, your handle, your name on the blade. Commission the first of a new design and the knife carries your name in the collection for good.
