It’s time we cultivate more mindfulness in the kitchen, beginning with our knives.

It all started when Hayden made the connection between his actions and what appeared on his plate. After watching food documentaries and reading books by Michael Pollan on food, agriculture, health and the environment while at college in California, Hayden Kessel was ready to take his food more seriously.

“I love being in the kitchen with friends — to gather and break bread is so sacred, and when it’s bread from grain your friend grew herself ... that’s badass,” Hayden shares.

His journey began with starting his own garden, shopping at farmer’s markets and volunteering at local community gardens. California native turned Coloradan, Hayden Kessel, 28, credits his successful knife-making business to his love for food, community and the outdoors.

His mission is simply to make good, quality knives. He believes in asking mindful questions like: Where does that food come from? How did you cook it? Were you outside or inside? With an open or closed fire? Did you use a handmade knife?

“I enjoy the communion food brings, and my connection with that is pretty bottomless,” Hayden says. “Knives are the most immediate implement we experience with our food, other than chewing with our teeth.”

An artist to artisan, Hayden likes solving problems by designing pieces that are functional and also beautiful. Balancing this passion with his professional agricultural career paved the way for knife-making, which uniquely combines the two. He made his first knife in California when he was 21 years old to use for cutting wood and cooking on a camping trip — and he still uses it today. His work lasts. To Hayden, knives are timeless tools that have a lot of nuance and history to them — they’ve been a part of man’s toolbox for thousands of years.

“We solved the original design challenge: I need to divide my food; I’ll use a knife, and the design of the knife helps me eat the food,” Hayden explains. “When I cut a cucumber with friends or a steak that I’ve been raising, there’s different knives for all that different food. Each kitchen gathering with friends is an opportunity for me to contribute more to that communion.”

Hayden moved to Colorado when he was 24 to help a friend start Colorado Pastured Pork in Hotchkiss, and that’s when he really ramped up his knife production and gained attention for it on Instagram. Four years later in early 2018, Hayden officially launched Hayden Knife and does custom orders through his website.

He balances his time between herding 400 cattle at Cold Mountain Ranch in Carbondale from sunrise to sunset and hand-crafting chef knives in his limited spare time. Each piece takes 10 to 14 hours to create; because of this, he is currently making just one or two knives a month.

Hammer it out, heat treat it, temper it, grind it, polish it, attach handle at the very end. The most important aspect is the proper rendering of the steel’s performance and the quality of the high-carbon steel itself. According to Hayden, anyone can make what looks like a knife, but totruly be a good one, it needs a hard and flexible edge. The delicate balance of knife making is achieving that duality, he says.

It was his passion that surfaced the desire to make knives, but his many mentors who acted as the actuators in his story, Hayden explains — they are the ones who guided it all to fruition. And his mentors are still his consultants today. Each maker specializes in different things, and Hayden continues to learn something new with every knife he makes.

Learn more about Hayden at haydenknife.com and on Instagram @haykessel.

Originally published in the Fall 2019 issue of Spoke+Blossom

Maker: Hayden Kessel of Hayden Knife