• Chef Knife 200mm GoMai Damascus Ni Apex Ultra 'Paragon Series' Desert Ironwood
  • Chef Knife 200mm GoMai Damascus Ni Apex Ultra 'Paragon Series' Desert Ironwood – detail view
  • Chef Knife 200mm GoMai Damascus Ni Apex Ultra 'Paragon Series' Desert Ironwood – side profile
  • Chef Knife 200mm GoMai Damascus Ni Apex Ultra 'Paragon Series' Desert Ironwood – handle detail
  • Chef Knife 200mm GoMai Damascus Ni Apex Ultra 'Paragon Series' Desert Ironwood – blade close-up
  • Chef Knife 200mm GoMai Damascus Ni Apex Ultra 'Paragon Series' Desert Ironwood – view 6
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Kochmesser 200 mm GoMai Damast-Ni Apex Ultra „Paragon Series“ Wüsteneisenholz

Kochmesser 200 mm GoMai Damast-Ni Apex Ultra „Paragon Series“ Wüsteneisenholz

By Bernhard Noitz

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Bernhard Noitz

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This one-of-a-kind Paragon Series chef knife is a singular expression of contemporary European kitchen cutlery, handcrafted entirely by Bernhard Noitz. Designed as a modern interpretation of the classic chef profile, the blade features a lightly tapered spine and a restrained, purposeful edge line. The edge carries a gentle radius from heel to tip, flatter than many knives in this category, making it exceptionally well suited to controlled push-pull cuts and precise slicing. An acute, finely drawn tip allows for confident detail work—particularly when working through onions, herbs, and delicate garnishes—without sacrificing stability or feedback.

The blade geometry reflects a carefully considered balance rather than an extreme. Wide convex bevels provide excellent food release while maintaining strong cutting authority across a wide spectrum of ingredients, from dense root vegetables to softer produce. Neither laser nor brute workhorse, this knife occupies a refined middle ground, offering confidence and performance without fragility. At its core lies Apex Ultra, a high-performance carbon steel renowned for its edge stability and exceptional sharpness. The core is clad in Bernhard’s house-forged Go-Mai Damascus, separated by a nickel diffusion barrier that adds both visual depth and structural integrity. The acid-etched, matte-polished finish brings out the layered construction while developing a controlled patina over time.

The handle is a western-influenced, ergonomically faceted design built for real kitchen use. Crafted from dense desert ironwood and paired with a patinated bronze bolster, the handle offers comfort in both hammer and pinch grips. Subtle shaping and balance give the knife a feeling of robustness without heaviness—nimble, responsive, and composed in hand. This Paragon Series piece is not merely a tool, but a complete, resolved object: balanced, expressive, and unmistakably individual.

Product Specification
  • Blade Type:
  • Overall Length: 335mm
  • Edge Length: 200mm
  • Spine Heel: 3.25mm
  • Spine Mid: 2.9mm
  • Spine Tip (20mm before): 1.5mm
  • Blade Height: 58mm
  • Weight: 214.1g
  • Cutting Edge Steel:
  • Steel class: Carbon
  • HRC: 66
  • Blade Construction:
  • Blade Finish: Acid Etched (Forced Patina), Matte Polish
  • Grind:
  • Handle Construction:
  • Handle Materials: Desert Ironwood
  • Handedness: Ambidextrous

Blade type

Chef Knife

The western chef knife is the traditional European all-purpose profile, usually 200 to 250 mm, defined by a continuous curve running from a tall heel to a fine, pointed tip. The height at the heel gives knuckle clearance and the leverage to work through denser ingredients, while the curve keeps part of the edge on the board through a whole stroke, which is what makes the rocking motion work for mincing herbs and aromatics. The tip is where the profile earns the rest of its range — fine enough for detail work, scoring and tip cuts that a broader nose cannot manage.

That combination, tall at the heel and fine at the tip with the curve between them, is what makes it the most adaptable shape in the western kitchen: comfortable rocking, slicing and chopping without demanding a single way of working. Regional interpretations shift the emphasis, the French pattern running slimmer and lighter with a more continuous curve, the Solingen pattern taller with a more pronounced belly. The gyuto, which traces its lineage directly back to this profile, carries a flatter edge and rewards push- and pull-cutting, where the western chef knife stays the more forgiving of the two across a wider range of techniques and hands. Modern makers increasingly blur the line between them, drawing a profile that rocks and push-cuts equally well — Birch & Bevel's Modern Gyuto profile, Antoine Kniamen's Western Gyuto, and Benjamin Kamon's own gyuto profile are all examples of that hybrid thinking.

View full knife type guide →

Cutting edge steel

Apex Ultra

Low-alloy fine-grain carbon tool steel

Typical HRC
64–68
Corrosion class
Carbon
Production
Conventional
Origin
Austria (ApexUltra project — developed by Larrin Thomas, Marco Guldimann and Tobias Hangler; FFG-funded, associated with Messerschmiede Hangler)

Apex Ultra is one of the most carefully engineered non-stainless kitchen knife steels in modern circulation — a steel designed from the ground up specifically for handmade knives, rather than borrowed from another industry. It was developed by metallurgist Larrin Thomas together with smiths Marco Guldimann and Tobias Hangler. It is a low-alloy carbon steel — roughly 1.25 percent carbon, 2.6 percent tungsten, 1.5 percent chromium and a 0.4 percent vanadium addition, with manganese and silicon kept low. That composition is tuned for high purity and a fine, evenly distributed mix of chromium-enriched iron carbides, tungsten carbides and vanadium carbides — the structure that lets it hold a very hard edge without the coarse carbides or plate martensite that sap toughness in other high-hardness carbon steels.

What this means for a cook is unusual permission. Apex Ultra carries very high toughness in the 66+ HRC range — the highest of any knife steel its developers have tested at that hardness — so you can ask a maker to grind it thin and run the heat treatment hard, and the edge will hold far longer than the carbon steels smiths usually forge, without microchipping. It forges and forge-welds much like 52100 or 1.2562, sharpens cleanly on natural and synthetic stones without needing diamond plates, and its modest chromium slows patina a little — though it is not stainless and should be cared for as a carbon steel.

Apex Ultra has become a signature steel of the European maker community, and the Modern Cooking catalogue carries an unusually deep bench of smiths working in it. Tobias Hangler himself heads that group, alongside Marco Guldimann, Benjamin Kamon, Martin Huber, Jonas Johnsson, Karol Karyś, Birch & Bevel, and MCx. It is genuinely a step forward — one of the relatively few cases where the marketing claims and the underlying metallurgical data are saying the same thing.

View full steel guide →

Blade construction

Laminated Steel

A category covering knives built from multiple layers of different steels forge-welded together. The hard cutting steel is sandwiched between softer outer layers (cladding) that protect the core, add toughness, and often contribute visual contrast.

The most common laminated constructions in the Modern Cooking catalogue are:

SanMai (三枚) — three layers: hard cutting steel in the centre, softer cladding on both sides. The traditional and most common form.

GoMai (五枚) — five layers: a hard core, two intermediate layers, and two outer layers. Adds visual depth and structural complexity.

KuMai (九枚) — nine layers: similar logic, with more cladding layers for additional pattern and structural variation.

GoMai and KuMai are often chosen not only for the additional layers and visual depth, but also because the intermediate layers can act as a nickel diffusion barrier — limiting carbon migration out of the core into the cladding during forge welding, and protecting the core's intended carbon content through the heat of the forging process.

In all cases the cutting performance is determined by the core steel; the outer layers are cosmetic and structural. The lamination contributes corrosion protection (when a stainless jacket clads a carbon core), reduced reactivity, and the visible boundary between core and cladding that gives the knife its character.

View full construction guide →

Grind

Convex

A grind whose faces curve outward in a continuous arc rather than falling in a straight line. The practical consequence is that it has no shoulder — no abrupt step where a bevel meets the blade face. Food release improves for the same reason: a curved face touches the cut surface along a narrow band instead of a full flat plane, so slices break away rather than clinging. Drag behaves differently too. A convex blade carries more steel than a flat grind of the same spine thickness, so it is not the lowest-drag geometry available, but the resistance it does create builds smoothly through the cut instead of arriving all at once as the food meets a bevel transition. The feel is progressive rather than sudden.

The curve also supports the edge. Steel thickens quickly behind the apex, which raises edge stability at a given sharpening angle — the apex is less prone to rolling or chipping under lateral load. How much of that you get depends on where the convexity sits. A face can be curved the whole way from spine to edge, or the curve can be confined to the last millimetre or two as a convex "appleseed" edge on an otherwise flat blade. The first shapes how the knife moves through food; the second is felt almost entirely at the edge.

View full grind guide →

Handle construction

Hidden Tang

A construction in which the tang runs into the handle but stays concealed inside it, rather than showing between two scales. A narrower tang — a full-length stick or a shorter projection — is set into a drilled or burned channel in a one-piece handle and secured with adhesive, a friction fit, or a threaded fitting drawn up against the blade. This is the traditional construction of Japanese wa-handles and many European hidden-tang knives.

The design puts the handle material in charge of the look and feel: a single piece of wood, horn, or composite — often with a ferrule or spacers at the front — is shaped into any cross-section the maker wants, from the classic octagonal and D-shaped wa profiles to fully rounded Western forms. With no steel showing along the grip, the handle can be slim and light, and is frequently made to be removed and replaced, with the balance sitting toward the blade.

View full construction guide →

Shipping & Returns

Shipping

We process orders 5 days a week (Monday - Friday) and ship from our shop in Sydney, Australia. We ship with FedEx, UPS and DHL.

We are happy to offer free international shipping on a variety of orders depending on location and order value.

Free Shipping Regions and Minimum Order Values

For Australia and New Zealand the minimum is $500AUD. For the rest of the world it is approximately €1000EUR. The discount is applied automatically when you reach the minimum cart value at checkout.

Returns

If you're not entirely happy with your purchase, you can return it within 14 days of delivery for a refund. The item must be in its original condition with all original packaging.

  • Returns are accepted for 14 days
  • The customer is responsible for return shipping costs
  • A 15% restocking fee may be applied to change-of-mind returns
  • We do not accept returns on second-hand items for change of mind

Faulty or Damaged Items

You must notify us within 5 business days of receiving your order. Photographic evidence of damage is required. Once approved, Modern Cooking will cover return shipping costs.

Product Care

Cleaning: Clean by hand with warm water. Avoid wetting the handle when possible.

Sharpening: We advise using whetstones to sharpen your knives and a honing rod or steel to maintain the burr between sharpening sessions.

Reactive Steels: Reactive steels like Aogami Super, Apex Ultra or premium reactive German and Swedish steels are susceptible to rust if not properly cared for. Keep the knife dry between uses and when storing for longer periods, wiping the blade with Tsubaki oil or another food-safe oil is a wise choice. A patina can be a beautiful personal feature on your knife and helps to stop rust forming.

Handle Care: For non-stabilised wooden handles, apply Tsubaki oil or another food-safe oil from time to time. Food-safe wax can be applied to both stabilised and non-stabilised wooden handles. Never apply hot wax or oil as you risk warping or damaging the handle.

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