Bespoke kitchen knives · Durban

Performance with Soul.

Knives drawn from the lines of the world's great cars, then made by hand for one cook, one table, one family.

The books are open at home. Most Laubscher knives leave South Africa for collectors abroad. Dylan has now opened his commission book to local clients.

Start a commission View the collections

Dylan Laubscher holding a finished chef's knife in the workshop, with the orange Laubscher L mark over it

2011Making knives since

1 : 1Every blade drawn to scale

No limitsOn materials, bar your imagination

Laubscher chef's knife, damascus blade with a red burl handle and mosaic pins, on dark leather

Laubscher chef's knife with a sculpted wenge handle on a dark ground

At the table

The carve is the moment.

You chose the cut. Wagyu, marbled like stone, rested and ready. Then it reaches the table and someone hands over a knife from the drawer.

A Laubscher turns that moment into the event. Drawn from its sheath. Laid against the board. Through the crust without a sound.

Your guests will remember the steak. They will ask about the knife.

The collections

Nine cars. Nine knives.

Each collection borrows the line of one car. Reserve a numbered piece from the run, or use it as the starting point for a knife made only for you. Tap a knife to see its full sheet.

The batch

Three knives. Your materials.

Proven Laubscher patterns, made in small batches and finished in the steel and handle you choose. The price starts here and rises with the materials.

L82 Gyuto

The all-rounder. Long enough to carve a whole striploin, fine enough for herbs.

From$230R3 800

L91 K-Tip Petty

The small knife you reach for first. Shallots, trimming, the fine work.

From$195R3 200

L47 Santoku

Broad, confident and quick through the board. Just as at home at the braai.

From$360R5 900

Dollar prices are a guide, converted at about R16.50 to the dollar and rounded. Final prices are confirmed in rand.

Blade steel

From most to least exclusive.

DamasteelStainless damascus
Damascus san maiHigh carbon
ElmaxStainless
VanaxStainless
N690CoStainless
O1 tool steelHigh carbon

Handle

Mix them. A Fordite pin in mammoth, a meteorite bolster on burl.

Hardwoods and burls
Mammoth tooth
Meteorite
Fordite (Detroit agate)
Carbon fibre
Westinghouse Micarta
G10

Recent work

From the bench

Handles in burls and hardwoods, sayas in figured maple, details in Fordite. Each one made for a specific cook.

Damascus nakiri with a burl handle and copper spacer on dark slate — **Nakiri**Damascus, burl handle, copper spacer

Kiritsuke-style knife with a burl wood handle, held in hand — **Kiritsuke**Burl handle, satin blade

Chef's knife in a figured maple saya, dark stabilised burl handle with mosaic pins — **Chef's knife + saya**Maple saya, stabilised burl

Knife in a figured maple saya with an orange Fordite roundel, burl handle, on leather — **Kiritsuke + saya**Flamed maple, Fordite roundel

Hand-forged santoku with a hardwood wa handle on a weathered wooden spool — **Santoku**Forged finish, wa handle

Looking down the spine of a blade against the sky to check the grind — **Geometry**Checking the grind down the spine

Dylan Laubscher in his workshop, arms folded, with the outline of the Laubscher L mark

An heirloom from the first cut

Bought once. Handed down.

Most things in a kitchen are used up. A Laubscher is not. Good steel, kept sharp and cared for, outlasts the cook, the kitchen and the house it lives in.

It will be at your table long after we are gone, and then at your children's. The patina on the blade becomes a record of the meals it has made.

The commission

How it works

Finished kiritsuke lying on its 1:1 technical drawings — Every blade is drawn 1:1 before steel is cut.

1
Brief
Send the form below. It opens a WhatsApp chat with Dylan, where you talk through how you cook, who it is for and the car or material that moves you.
2
Drawing
The knife is drawn to scale: profile, grind and handle. You approve the drawing and the materials before work starts.
3
Build
Steel is cut, heat-treated, ground and finished. The handle is shaped to the drawing and fitted by hand.
4
Handover
Your knife arrives sharpened and ready for the table, with a care card for its steel.

Performance with Soul.

The carve is the moment.

Nine cars. Nine knives.

Three knives. Your materials.

L82 Gyuto

L91 K-Tip Petty

L47 Santoku

Blade steel

Handle

From the bench

Bought once. Handed down.

How it works

Brief

Drawing

Build

Handover

Tell me about your knife

One last step: send it on WhatsApp.