I have been a chef for many years.
I completed my apprenticeship at one of Denmark’s best French restaurants, Bistro Boheme, and during that period, I opened hundreds, if not thousands, of oysters every single week.
I used to buy the most expensive oyster knife I could get my hands on, from one of the biggest and most well-known French knife brands, and I broke at least ten of them during my apprenticeship.
Today, I am a knife maker, and I understand why.

They were simply too thin behind the tip.
Those oyster knives were designed to be cheap to produce.
You need a sharp point on an oyster knife to get in behind the oyster, but if it’s too thin, it will bend.
If the steel is too hard, it will break.
That’s why my oyster knife is ground like a medieval sword, from four sides instead of two.
This design gives significantly more thickness in the middle, increasing stability and preventing the knife from bending like many others do.

I have also spent a long time researching and testing specific heat and hardening processes for Damascus steel.
Hardness and toughness really matter.

Below 48 HRC:
The steel is too soft. The blade can bend when twisting open stubborn oysters.

Above 55 HRC:
The steel becomes too hard, with a risk of brittle fractures or the tip snapping under torsion.

A good oyster knife needs toughness more than edge retention.
The blade doesn’t cut like a chef’s knife. It functions as a sharp-tipped pry bar.
The tip must be able to survive twisting loads.
The blade is usually short, thick, and rounded, relying more on geometry than sharpness.

My oyster knife is carefully heat-treated and tempered to 52 HRC.
That is the practical sweet spot for a tough, durable oyster knife that neither bends nor breaks.

My goal was to create the perfect oyster knife, and I am satisfied with the result.
Not a cheap consumer product, but a high-quality tool made to last a lifetime.

// Jacob Bech
RICEKNIFE 🤘🔪❤️