Among professional chefs, a knife by Bob Kramer is the ultimate grail. The Washington-based bladesmith’s waitlist is endless, with only a handful of knives available for purchase each year. His blades sell for thousands of dollars, averaging $200 per inch of steel. Kramer’s knives are hard to come by in any sphere; early pieces, even more so.
An authentic 10-inch chef’s knife by Bob Kramer is currently up for grabs on eBay through Monday. Purchased in 1998 and serviced by Kramer himself in May 2017, the carbon steel blade with cocobolo wood handle dates to a decisive phase in Kramer’s career. Kramer earned the rare designation of Master Bladesmith in 1997, but he wouldn’t rise to such mythical heights for another decade, when Cook’s Illustrated described an 8-inch Kramer knife as having “outperformed every knife we’ve ever rated.” As the seller phrases it, “This is Bob Kramer before he became ‘Bob Kramer.’”
