Oliver Märtens

Oliver Märtens spent many years as a machinist in the German steel industry before turning to the forge, and the precision of that earlier discipline runs visibly through his work. He founded Oel in 2015, where each blade is forged, ground, and finished by hand from his workshop in Hesse, Germany. The transition from industrial steelwork to bladesmithing was a measured one, shaped by a long-standing eye for design and a clear sense of the kitchen knife as both tool and object. Oel has since become quietly recognised among collectors for a Bauhaus-leaning sensibility — minimalist form, functional clarity, restrained material palettes — rather than any single dramatic gesture.

That Bauhaus orientation extends from the blade to the handle, and Oliver's signature in recent years has been an internal takedown handle mechanism — a deceptively simple innovation that allows the handle to be cleanly disassembled for maintenance while preserving the sculptural integrity of the knife in use. The handles themselves are constructed in faceted geometries, with winged swells and tapered transitions worked in materials including Australian ringed gidgee, brass, bog oak, and synthetic composites. Steel selection, heat treatment and grind geometry are treated as inseparable parts of the same problem, and the resulting blades are balanced, composed, and confidently sharp.

That precision-led restraint has made Oliver a central voice in Modern Cooking's MCx Design Studio, where his handle architecture has paired with the blade work of Benjamin Kamon on a sequence of limited-edition collaborative pieces. Outside the MCx releases, the Oel catalogue carries the same coherent language: profiles that feel familiar but quietly refined, finishes that are clean rather than ornamental, and proportions tuned for long prep without strain. The result is a quietly luxurious kitchen tool, beautiful enough to display yet built first and foremost to cut, and one of the most considered makers in the Collectors Selection.