rob lee: Welcome to The Truth in this Art, your source for conversations connecting arts, culture, and community. These are stories that matter, and I am your host Rob Lee. Today, I have the pleasure of running it back and reconnecting with a Renaissance man and the owner slash operator of Hyde Handmade Knives, who was on the podcast back in 2022, and I am eager to catch up with him. So returning to The Truth in this Art, we have Henry Hyde. Welcome back to the podcast.
Henry Hyde: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.
rob lee: And to start off for those folks who may be new to the podcast, who just unfortunately may have missed our first conversation a couple years back, could you reintroduce yourself and tell us a bit about your work? You're sort of that intro elevator and how you are this and you business type sometimes a weird around self promotion. You have to set the stage for us. Sure.
Henry Hyde: My name is Henry Hyde. I'm from Howard County, Maryland, but I moved back here after college to begin my knife making career. I am a knife maker, knife sharpener, tinkerer, woodworker, mostly focusing on kitchen knives and the wider culinary tool kind of market.
rob lee: I like it. I still have one of the knives that I got from you when we did that lost interview and TV show that didn't go anywhere that I was really tight about. I had a really funny intro that we just scrapped. It was something about, you know, you need something sharp like you're cooking up crack or cut stuff.
Henry Hyde: Yeah, yeah.
rob lee: I'm really happy with that. You did a nice, ridiculous knife. I'm definitely really happy that we were able to reconnect and get this conversation. In some ways, it's retracing steps when I'm reinterviewing folks, what have you, continuing a conversation that we've had. Talk a bit about your design philosophy. You know, you're designing these things. It's wizardry, frankly. I was the only thing you do your thing and it's very much your own process, which I really like dig and the tinkerer thing comes through and looking at your website. I see all of the other stuff that you've touched on. So, macro-ly speaking, what is your design philosophy like sort of now versus perhaps when you started to make knives or earlier in your journey?
Henry Hyde: So, the wizardry thing, I think of it as a lot of, you know, if you look at a painter painting somebody, they just kind of start going and you're like, how do you do that? How do you, and it's like, it's right there.
I'm just looking at it and it's going on the paper now. It's kind of like that for me. It's all subconscious at this point. I do forged knives, so a lot of the design of it comes from the steel kind of in how it moves. So, I kind of try to follow the steel as much as I can with the final shape of what I'm making.
And I find that I get a lot more natural shapes that way. Whereas like when you start painting or you start drawing something, you can get the rough outline of what you're trying to make, but it doesn't look quite right to you. Like the scale of it or the proportions of what you're trying to do won't look quite right until you do it over and over and over again. And then you kind of try to smooth all those rough spots out. So, that's kind of been my evolution is just kind of doing it over and over and over again. And my style has kind of come out of trying new things, throwing away the things I don't like and keeping the things I do like. And you just do that enough times and you get something that looks less and less like someone else's work or the body of knife makers work generally and you get your own style out of that.
rob lee: Yeah, it's something I remember reading about sort of how artists kind of start out before they get to their style, their copying what someone else is doing. And then you do copy after copy after copy. And once you start stripping away those copies, you find yourself. Yeah, that there's something in there and, you know, as an instructor, the teacher.
Now I find myself kind of referencing that as far as like teaching sort of this next generation of podcasters. And, you know, you just things just don't materialize and just come out of nowhere. So I'm like knives just don't come out of anywhere. Work goes in. There's a routine that goes into this work.
Henry Hyde: My my first night is that I were making. I was just looking at the knife makers that I really liked and I was just one for one copying their knives.
And like showing it to my I had a mentor who was teaching me and I showed it to me. He's like, that's that guy's nice, but that looks good. And I was like, all right, sweet. And then I just kept doing that. And yeah, I got my style. It only took me five years.
rob lee: No, that's that's great where you have to start off with something. Who were some of your your favorite knife makers?
Henry Hyde: Oh, I don't even know. I know a lot of them through their Instagram handle, honestly. But obviously, I have my mentor was Quinton Middleton, who's a knife maker down in Charleston. Dimitri Popov, who's a guy in Australia. Will Stelter and.
Oh, God, what is his name? Will Stelter is a YouTuber and I've been watching him for as long as I can remember. All these guys are kind of just like the most prevalent on Instagram or YouTube. You know, you see a lot of their work and they've really been inspiring me since I started.
rob lee: So when you talk, you talk a bit about the sort of process, just sort of the amount of work and indefinitely in our first conversation and having it at a context of seeing a more parsed down version of the process or you're there at your space. Could you share your thoughts about just routine?
Right? I look at this like, quote, unquote, you don't get good at something just automatically you have to do it as repetition repetition. And even though you show when I was there at your space, you know, a very parsed down version, I was like, this is a lot of work to make one of these these knives. And so talk a bit about, you know, maybe ways that you shortened out their process or how long a process is in making a popular knife, one of your more popular knives style. But talk a bit about sort of what that design and making process looks like and how perhaps that's changed over the last few years for you. Sure.
Henry Hyde: So generally, my batches take between a month and a month and a half. And for custom batches, I'll do about a dozen per batch. And then for production, I've gone up to 85 for a production run. But usually I like to keep it like 20 to 30, just to keep my sanity. I really don't like to look at my knives for very long. That month and a half, two months is like kind of my limit.
And then I just start to go kind of start crazy. So I forge all of my steel, all of my blades out of quarter inch steel, which is relatively thick for knife making. A lot of guys start around three 30 second, eighth of an inch, all the way down to like 16th of an inch. And you're kind of just stretching the steel from there. But with steel, it's a lot like pressing clay in your hand. If you can imagine shaping a piece of clay with your fingers and pinching that down into a shape of a knife. If the clay is too thin and you try to pinch down on the spine and the edge of the knife, it will just fold it over like a taco. So if you have thicker steel, you can forge that into more complicated shapes. And then with that thicker steel, you can also get a better weight distribution. And you get kind of cooler effects with it.
So that's kind of what I've been focusing on now. It's it's a style called a semi integral knife where your knife handle and then there's a step, a small step down to your neck. And so that kind of the neck and the handle kind of feel like they're one piece and they've been designed together, but it's steel and wood rather than just having a handle and then a flat piece of steel come out of it, like most knives that you see. So we forge our knives. That the steel doesn't get like clay until you get to around 1900 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point, it will take all the hair off your hands.
And if you get close enough to it, it'll start burning you very, very quickly. I forge most of my stuff under power hammers, which are essentially mechanical or air hammers. So they're powered by either belts and wheels or by a basically a giant air compressor. And that will do a lot of the same work that you would swinging a hammer, but with a gigantic hundred pound sledge hammer, which saves me a lot of a lot of effort and time. And it's a lot more accurate. And so I kind of forgot where I was. Yes, doing design.
rob lee: Yeah. So you're talking through the process of making it and how that maybe changed over and you can cover the piece of that. Yeah.
Henry Hyde: So when you get started, obviously you have a lot less tools and machinery. A lot of these pieces of machinery started a couple of brands. So you kind of start as simply as possible. So I started with stock removal, which is basically cut a knife out of a sheet of steel to the shape that you want it and then grind down the blade to till it's sharp. Whereas this, you're taking a square of steel and forging that into the shape of the knife and then grinding that down.
And so over the years, obviously you get better and you learn what works and what doesn't and get kind of little shortcuts for yourself. And with forging, you can forge in a lot of those things that you'd have to do later in the stock removal process, like getting things flat and square. It's a lot easier and getting things exactly the way you want them in shape rather than having to grind it and get all that like that.
rob lee: It's a refinement. And I love that you touched on this one thing, especially as I mentioned earlier, the whole education thing that I'm doing with someone that's learning something new to it.
It's just like, hey, you know, how do I do this really advanced thing that people are already doing? I, you know, when I do an exercise, I come there with different pieces of equipment, some that are from 2009. So I got a mixer that's still from 2009.
It still works back when I got started. And I'm like, yeah, you got to start with something kind of small and then you build off of it. It's just like when you get your first toolbox, if you will, you're not going to have that very expensive, you know, drill or whatever that might be. You're going to have something to minimum at minimum get the job done and then as you get good at it, you build off of it. And I find like, you know, that's when we start meeting sort of like craft and art because no one has like a bunch of money that are responsible.
Henry Hyde: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when you get started. I mean, the more tools you kind of add to it in the beginning, the more overwhelming it can be, whereas you can really get a nice made with a belt sander. A source of heat and some glue, honestly. So you can really kind of make whatever you need like that. And then you just add more tools as you go along. You can make more fancy things. But in the beginning, it really doesn't help you to have a full workshop full of tools.
rob lee: That's right. Like I'm in my home studio right now and, you know, I have a different mixer than when we chatted initially. I'm looking at I have my gear cage, you know, with all of my sort of mobile equipment, none of that I had back in 2022 when we initially taught and sort of now having these different tools that fit the job as I need, you know, and just like, that's just sort of the philosophy there.
But to your point, it's like, I share the minimum. You just need something to get audio, need a power source. And it's going to sound gauche. You need a topic to discuss.
Need intent. Yeah, exactly. So in it, and I relate to this, I definitely want to get your take on it. I'm very curious, creating work like such as this takes long hours.
It's iterations. It is like solitude also. Like I rarely have anyone observing, you know, me when I'm doing this or anyone to talk to afterwards. You and I are having sort of this conversation in this moment. But afterwards, it's just like, Oh, Henry's gone.
I wish Henry was still here. You know, so it's sort of that dynamic. And for some people, I know what happens with for me, there's an emotional and a mental impact with sort of like solitude. I think art and creating can be very, you know, taxing emotionally. It's just sort of once you're done with it, and you were touching on this earlier, you don't like to just sit there and be with your knives all of that time of like, all right, I'm ready for you guys to go off. And I don't like to just sit with like my recordings.
I'm ready for them to be out there and I've done my job. So how do you, you know, sort of manage that and navigate through sort of the solitude that comes in and so the emotional ups and downs of doing creative work? Yeah.
Henry Hyde: So, especially with this kind of work, I kind of have to be in a special building or a specific build. Like this is specific industrial spaces that are often not, you know, I work with power hammers that I need. Hearing protection for so generally people don't want to be around that, but I started in the pandemic in station north in an old factory building and. I was alone for six months, I think, just working and also in, you know, the pandemic being isolated. So that was pretty depressing. But nowadays, obviously, I'm still in a factory building and there's no windows.
So we call it the cave. So it does get a little depressing in there, but I do have a an employee two days a week. So that definitely helps. And then I really try to kind of, I mean, obviously you have your creative thing is you're talking to people and mine is emailing customers and saying, okay, what do you want? But I've really started to try to go out and do more craft shows and talk to more people about it. And then, you know, nice shows as well. So there's collector, collector meetups.
There's one in July coming up that I really like going to where people actually know my work and I can talk to them about that. And that kind of keeps me going throughout a lot of the year. Having people recognize me and my work definitely keeps the fire going a lot of the time. And I'm sure you know that you've been on the billboard on Charles Street multiple times. Mr.
rob lee: Famous, you know, but it is no, it's a good point, though. I think, you know, I guess I joke about I'm a shy extrovert, I guess, or I don't know. But it is one of those things where, you know, you try to put yourself out there and I'm hearing that from you.
Like I try to do the different podcasts, sort of events or public radio events and things of that nature, some of these sort of like art things, you can't go to everything. And in this, it's sort of especially going at that pandemic or where this one took off really, really well. Or even when, you know, in the 2022 year when we did our interview, you know, some days I was doing six interviews in a day and then it's sort of like, oh, wow, 18 in a week, you know, it was a thing and it was not just one-offs, you know, and the thing that comes from it, the sort of emotional thing, you're feeling really good like, man, I really crushed this.
This went really well. And then maybe the downloads aren't there or maybe the follow up, you thought you made a connection. And in some ways, I was revisiting that and doing sort of the curation for this season. I was like, who do I want to talk to again? Who do I think I had a cool conversation with? Who would I want to go deeper with? And it wasn't like, who could I get?
Because that's not a thing. I get all of these weird requested interviews now, but it's sort of like, who do I feel like, hey, there's a kinship of like-mindedness and the person, quote unquote, that gets it. And part of that is, it's just like, I'm just not out there to make it about a sort of the opportunity to connect dots and connect people. And that's what really, as you said, keeps the fire going.
Yeah, for sure. So I read that you have some kitchen background in Charleston, South Carolina. How did that experience, could you describe that experience and how did it like shape your understanding of what chefs need, what great chefs need in terms of a knife and in terms of tools in the kitchen? Sure.
Henry Hyde: So I went to the College of Charleston. I was actually a business major and I tried working in an office one time and it went terribly. I hated every second of it. And that was actually in Beijing, China. I lived there for a summer and was working in offices over there because I was an international business major. But the one thing I really liked was the food there. I loved the food and I was like, why is there no Chinese, Chinese food?
I mean, there is, but it's a lot less common than just American Chinese food. So I wanted to do something like that. And so I started working in the kitchens in Charleston. They're everywhere.
So there's always jobs. Went in with no experience and kind of got my ass handed to me every single day of the week by people who had been classically trained and I just knew nothing. I knew what none of the things were called or what I was supposed to do or walking around the kitchen, saying behind to everyone or corner stuff like that.
I didn't know. So I spilled a bunch of shit all over the kitchen. But one of the things I did learn was, you know, learning to use a knife and learning how to cook, which is very useful. And personally, I really think that the best sign of a good knife is that you don't even think about it while you're using it.
It doesn't occur to you. Oh, this knife isn't really cutting or I'm struggling with this. It's just that you're not even think you're just cutting through all of your ingredients that you're working with perfectly. And you don't even need to consider the, how am I going to cut this with this dull knife for like, this isn't working. This is frustrating. Once you have a knife that works for you, it should just feel like the extension of your hand rather than something that you're really working with.
rob lee: That's good. The that's a good point because, you know, I leverage right having these conversations with folks and like one, there's two things I do in doing these interviews. One, I use stuff that you guys say to make my self sound more interesting. I'll reference you.
I'll just I'll say it's mine. I know that's a high doesn't make you well. I know that's for me. But also I use it to get unsolicited advice. And one of the things I share is like, I hate cutting vegetables.
I really just sucks. And but I finally brought a proper chef knife at the behest of Chris Amandola foraged. I was like, I'm looking to get a chef knife. What should I get?
He told me a bunch of different ones to look at. So that's what I ended up doing. And the first time I used that was just super eager. I was like, yes, I'm going to use something sharp and I'm going to cut some carrots. I didn't even want carrots, but now I just pick it up. I have a nice cutting board and all of that stuff.
And it's just there. Once we wrap, I'm going to cut some potatoes later for some like potatoes. I'd like roasted potatoes and have and you know, it's just something really cool. Make me look forward to the sort of admin part of cooking for me at least.
I'm just let me put on an air fryer where's my chicken scum though that in there real quick. But now I like the cutting aspect. So for you and having that awareness of being in a kitchen and getting a sense and cooking yourself, obviously, and having a sense of like what that should be like.
It's an extension as you touched on. What kind of feedback do you get from people who are using your knives and does that make you, you know, have changed how you feel about the work itself? Because sometimes it's thankless. You make a fail and then you move on or I do an interview and then I move on. But if someone stops me or I'm on a John billboard, I'm like, Oh, I felt good.
Henry Hyde: Yeah, most of the time for most of my customers, I send them. I send the knife and I hear nothing. So that I mean, it's it's it's a good thing to not hear anything back sometimes.
But you know, I get I get kind of two answers to that. I usually if it's their first knife, a lot of people talk about the ease of use. And, you know, obviously, that's a style item and, you know, it's so beautiful. I show all my friends and that feels great. And but people who it's always like the people who know knives and they're like, this is, you know, this is like you did a good job. That's usually that that's why I like those collector meetings where it's like these people are like, this is a good one because they know what a really nice knife is. Some of these guys are spending thousands of dollars on knives and, you know, to have somebody who knows what they're talking about, give you a compliment. Like, so that's why I'm trying to get into more stores nowadays, more knife stores across the US. And it really raises the raises the ego and the good feelings of being like, all right, these guys handle knives all day long and they like my stuff.
rob lee: Yeah, I relate to that. And when I have someone that's a public radio person or someone who's in the industry, and they're like, you're really good at this. I'm like, no, I'm not.
You're like, you need to stop at the modesty. It's like you're you're you're good at this and it holds a special thing. It's just like real recognized real sort of that vibe.
Henry Hyde: And I think it's like the artist, the artist versus like there, the way we perceive our our art versus the way it's perceived by the outside world. And like, I think the solitude a lot of the time, it's like it gets you're like, this is fine or this is like whatever. And like, people are like, what are you talking about? It's good. What do you do?
rob lee: But then in it, though, we kind of know, I think that because I know that I'm a bit of a perfectionist. So we know that it's like, I put a lot of work on this.
It's like the Gomberu thing, the Japanese thing, right? I was like, just don't worry about good luck. You've done your thing. You've done it. It's like, we know that, but still the solitude piece.
I would have like, but it could be better or I kind of mail that one. They're not been nice. And it's like, no, you've done a really good job here. And it's tough sometimes. It's tough sometimes thinking through that because that, you know, we live in a world that get modern world where sort of that external validation, such a big thing, you know, that's the art of it. And we almost allow what we think it's like, which sort of external validation are we looking for? Because you'll have people say, this is good. And you're like, I don't believe you or okay, cool. I'll accept it. Yeah.
Henry Hyde: That's why I led the old Instagram was less, it was less throwing stuff into the void. There's a lot more kind of feedback from people. Whereas I think nowadays that's why I'm trying to do more craft shows and more like in person stuff. Because you get more of the, it's more of a conversation in person rather than now on Instagram. It's just like, let me throw this into people's feeds for the next 30 minutes and then it's gone forever. Yeah.
rob lee: It's the vibe. But I saw it in, I think, depth of the artist and it's talking about sort of the difference between advertising from like old, old spice and advertising for like McDonald's.
It's just like McDonald's. This is a couple of years ago, like 2019. So ironically, when I started this podcast, that old spices vibe is they're giving you comedy and the product happens to be there. Sort of surrealist thing. They're entertaining you for 30 seconds at a time will have you. Whereas McDonald's is just, let me take your attention for a bit and you're really not getting anything out of it. And it's sort of what I see happening with or has been happening with, with Instagram. It's just like throwing it out there and avoid and it's this fight for the attention economy that's sitting there regardless of whether the product or the brand or whatever it is is good or not. Yeah. Yeah. It's really a challenge and I'm curious about this. You mentioned the sort of the the Trace Show and the sort of events. What would that ideal situation look like for you?
Like you know almost in this sort of woo-woo manifestation way we're proud of the universe. You know would it be demos? Would it be just you pulling up with the jacket like here's all of the knives I got?
Henry Hyde: I honestly I lay in bed and think about this most nights before I fall asleep. Like what do I want? I would like to do a lot of kind of traveling shows that would be cool.
I bought a K-Truck recently last year and I would love to do kind of like craft shows off of the back of that. I'd like to do education in the future, in the far future not the near future. And kind of fit in life between all those things I guess. I just I think that life balance with work has been so messed up with learning this new trade and kind of I learned it and then I had to kind of relearn how to live my life with making knives because I kind of let it take over my entire life because it was during the pandemic. Excuse me. And I kind of had to relearn how to like take weekends and take time off and you know I didn't really you know.
rob lee: I hear you. I hear you and it's funny. You know I referenced 2022 a lot right because at the end of that year I did a creative mornings talk and I'm just like I'm nervous speaking publicly. I don't know what the hell I do and I ended up putting together what I think was pretty decent right and you know you look for that you look for your friendly faces and there are people there I knew but it was nobody who's close to me that was there so I felt that that solitude thing in a crowded room still feeling the solitude thing and you know there are several people who had been on the podcast you would be on the audience and all of that stuff which was great and the feedback was great but one of the questions that came at the end of the talk was when are you going to take a break? Yeah like you're not taking care of yourself and I was like what do you mean? It's like you can't be taking care of yourself because you're so busy it's no way you can be taking care of yourself so you know having that and having that in a sort of very public way and it wasn't like I was you know put on blast or anything along those lines but it was more so like you know you're right you're right I should be prioritizing these things versus just being dutiful. Let me get this work done I got so much stuff to do and it's like it's not that serious at the end of the day so looking at that you know benchmark is the high watermark of 300 plus interviews in a year the following year first year I think I got some funding I was like I'm gonna do 175 interviews still a lot but I'm gonna do less and then I did some video interviews in there and still trying to like keep it interesting for me and kind of pushing it along and then the following year I was like I'm gonna do just over 100 and I'm trying to like willow it down to balance out some of these other things and one of the other things happened to be doing the education stuff it's like I'm curious about this let me extend sort of what I'm able to do here but then also in all of that I haven't even mentioned the personal thing trying to figure out how to not have something relate back to this creative work or this journalistic or anthropological work and in some ways learn how to be apart with this new awareness people know who I am despite being here forever so I relate I hear you and this past Friday I gave myself a self-care day you know I was just like all right so I'm gonna do this I'm gonna get a facial might get a tattoo and I'm gonna get my ears pierced and a haircut I didn't do anything else that day the only thing I didn't do was get the tattoo and I'm gonna get that later
Henry Hyde: yeah I think I think because I started my business in 2019 and then I moved to Baltimore and six months later the pandemic started knife making kind of became my like self soothing for the pandemic to fill my time to distract myself and it gave me a lot of purpose in my life and even before that before the pandemic when I was still learning I was a lot of my practice of knife making was to give myself like a purpose after college because I'd just gone to business school and I didn't want to do anything that was pertaining to my college major and I was like you know what am I doing with my life now and then to have to sell that I think to sell those pieces to make a living kind of became like a definitely like an imposter syndrome but also you know I'm selling these pieces of myself pieces of my like self expression I guess which kind of you know
rob lee: I again you know the I think we talked about this in the first interview I have a business degree as well that the old I see you were smarter about it you got out of it earlier right like I waited five years and that was spit out I was like yeah man I'm gonna go to Long Road with this I'm gonna be great I'm gonna be a business guy I was flicking my hair back I was Gordon Gekko in it it was not great and then just with the nature of the business I was in I was in marketing for a big telecom company and was spit out you know 27 looking for direction and sort of in this stage of all right am I going to do a full pivot and ultimately that's what it's been and I've been in the same industry I was already podcasting at that time but I've been in the same industry as far as the day job for the last 13 years you know so doing doing both but with it having the awareness to prioritize both and give them their both their their due but definitely this podcast thing is at the forefront because this is the thing that's that's for me but it's a lot of trade-offs that that happen there in terms of time we all have the same 24 hours and we all have the same sort of or we all have insecurities we all have fears or all have anxieties and you know at a point I always think about it of if that call comes because you know some of the people that I meet I'm looking at a card right now from a big person in the industry do I want to make a living purely from doing this creative thing what I like it less and I've had of almost an internship version of that with some of these grant conversations and some of the funders they're telling me who to interview and how to interview them and even another speaking opportunity outside of creative mornings they want to be to change the reason like questions that I ask here why'd you get started and all of that they wanted me to change it to fit a narrative that they had in mind so change the DNA of the story of why I got started I was just like nah it doesn't fit yeah and then some of those things so important is so key to me so I feel like to say like having that that period and that continued because it continues to really learn where I'm at in a given stage of this sort of like arc and this sort of journey it's been important to me and been useful for me
Henry Hyde: yeah I think that's why talking to other people is so important because otherwise when you're just by yourself you can't see where you are you're all in you're in your own head you can't see the bigger picture where you've come from whereas other people can say like you know six months ago you were making a dog shit knife and now look at you
rob lee: exactly exactly that's like you know I think I had a friend yeah I always have like a few friends usually my brother one of my good friends they're like I write rap sometimes they're like this ain't good bro I was like come on man it could be better but just always like stick to the podcast stick to that thing and do that and you know getting that that sort of feedback but when you're in isolation yeah it's a it's a thing it's a thing to really navigate through so I visited your your site earlier as well because I like that you know I like to do a little research I like to check in and see you know see you know everything from utility knife chef knives I even seen like some some oyster shakers right on time you know you touched on sort of the tankering you know you do cutting boards as well you just wouldn't work so what is I guess what would be next for you as far as like other maybe utility utility utility knives or other instruments tools that you would want to like maybe dive into and try to explore a little bit sort of from a curiosity standpoint
Henry Hyde: yeah I've been talking about making fish specialist for probably two years to the point where everyone that I've talked to about is starting to get tired of me talking about it and they're like just make it just make it at this point so I really love fish spatulas they're flexible wide spatulas and the way that I forge my knives that they can I think I can make a stainless version of it because I can't really make it carbon steel because spatulas go in the dishwasher all the time so it's something that I think I can make I just have to do a bunch of planning and r &d and a bunch of CAD work to get it done but I just haven't done it yet but it's something that I've been thinking about doing for a long time
rob lee: you know it's always like we always have that thing that sits there because we have these dreams it's like when you get above all you kind of just make you know the same thing maybe it's a little bit left a little bit here a little bit there there's a challenge here but when it's just like I've been talking about this one for a while it's sort of that like you know I'm gonna have to do it I'm gonna hold you accountable the thing when you should hold me accountable here there's a spoof podcast I'm supposed to do I've talked about it for like three years maybe four about some of the stuff I hear in interviews that I don't like I want to interview myself in characters saying all of the inane brain rot things that I hear as I'm doing like an earnest interview so I'm interviewing me nice yeah being an ass and just put it out for like April Fool's Day I'll be the dead I was going to see how many people are like man I interview with
Henry Hyde: I was a lot like Rob telling him to Rob
rob lee: literally I want to overdo it it's going to be great um I think one of the things I want to say in there is the um you know my work is really about the east Baltimore diaspora I've really just thrown it out there just to see if people are like you're trolling heavy so so talk to me about um two two things um a particular knife that just sticks out that just poses like this is a bitch to make this is a really unique challenge it could be a custom one it could be just one that you're commonly like making and regardless of like how many times you've made it like this is always a challenge
Henry Hyde: um I've started to do a lot more mosaic Damascus which is where you take different two different alloys usually of steel and you'll usually have a light steel and a dark steel so a dark steel has more carbon and a light steel has more chromium or or other things it'll make it a shinier steel once it's once it's etched and so you kind of make a picture on top of on the side of your blade using the two layers and you keep restacking and re-welding them in different directions so you can make like stars and twists and x's and explosions and feather patterns and all kinds of stuff like that so I would say a couple of those recently that have always been you know I've been sitting on the pattern for a month and that takes me another month to make the knife but you know then that's one of the things where you know that's where you start getting to the thousands of dollars for knives could take months of work to make them but they're you know they're one of a kind pieces so I've made a couple of those that have been really nice um and then the pieces that I always languish over the ones that I send to stores because these guys are always looking at knives they'll notice scratch patterns and proportions and all that stuff so that's the kind of things where I'm kind of like this is really a test of whether or not I can make it as a knife maker in a more um in a more commercial sense
rob lee: and is there a particular knife that maybe recently you've worked on that you're just like really really proud of that really sticks out um you know people ask me all the time that you know what's your favorite interview I was like yeah all my favorite because I got a sound diplomatic and there's some that you know gonna stick out for other reasons and some are gonna be like I was not good or this person was really intimidating or wow I did really good there and I didn't expect it is there one that you know and I'm usually really proud of them too you know as far as like the work that went into them so their particular knife that sticks out that you're really proud of and what was the story behind it?
Henry Hyde: The only thing that's coming to mind is that I've got a couple of I got two baseball players the two professional baseball players one Oriole and one Dodger that has my has my knives that's pretty cool they're not really particularly anything unusual but just the fact that I've got you know actual famous people have my knives pretty cool and then um I also I kind of I went to a dinner event that um that a famous chef was going to and I kind of like walked over to him was like hey have a knife so so that's kind of the three people that I have
rob lee: so hold on so hold on so you're handing out knives like business
Henry Hyde: cards hey yeah like business cards exactly yeah I'm like keep me in mind
rob lee: I love it I love it so I got I got one last sort of real question and a few rapid fire questions for you um and this kind of touches back on um kind of an area where you're talking on earlier uh what keeps you like what keeps you going when you're you're starting a question like the why the why in a path of the why maybe uh why am I going in this direction it's like you know you want to make knives you know you want to work in sort of this this area or maybe questioning your direction or what keeps you going and where do you think you're headed you know really that's that's sort of where I'm thinking like what keeps you going and where do you think you're headed um ultimately because I run into this question a lot myself like and and I I'll just give you this piece there was some discussion of me wrapping up the podcast at the end of last year I was just going to end it and just no fair world tour just like I'm going to do these interviews and then I'm going to go off in the you know sunset
Henry Hyde: yeah um I think a lot about that a lot like what the what's the purpose for an artist what's the purpose in our lives as artists like what does it all mean is it useful um and a lot of the times when I have those conversations with myself a lot of times I just need to step back from it and kind of live my life outside of work because I find as a creative I'm constantly thinking about work and as a business owner it's always in my back mind that I haven't filed taxes for last quarter and I haven't done all of my you know paperwork that I need to do and but when I have those things I just need to step back and you know go into my garden and you know go for a motorcycle ride or go fishing or get outside or talk to other people and just kind of live life and not look at my phone or think about how many customers I have or this or that so um that's been kind of the only thing that I have uh but that question constantly nags me so I'm not quite sure
rob lee: I think it's honest answer and um yeah I mean it's still the same thing that's that's sitting there you know it's for some I don't know maybe maybe it's jaded and stuff but like people like the to see the struggle I like to see the trajectory and then when you kind of get the thing that you're looking for I don't know how many people are particularly happy about it it's like you're to be happy about because it's for you it's your journey and I struggle with that piece a lot it's like I'm not doing this with my health you know doing it you know but also it's like I have multiple reasons why I do it and you know I have ideas that keep me curious and keep me interested and you know recently my my partner mentioned to me she was just like you don't seem she said seems like you're enjoying what you're doing but she was like I don't feel the excitement coming off of you for some of the conversations that you're having or you know you're really looking forward to this guest she's like you used to give me the full rundown of this is who I have this week this person's great they do this this and this she's like that's not there as much but you're really ex excelling at doing your stuff but the so the exuberance isn't there and she actually think are you thinking of wrapping it up or what are your thoughts here and what's sort of the next thing for you would you consider like ending this and shifting or where would that go and so it is a question that's that's there and my sort of challenge is I think you know we're all we're all good at faking it we're all good at doing the whole imposter thing is like oh man I'm great this is wonderful it's like you're performing and it's sort of this thing I don't want it to come through in the interviews that I'm not happy about this or that or what have you I like to keep a poker face somewhat and you know I had to find what my reasoning was why I wanted to do it why to get excited why to be interested why to be curious and I think I did find it what was it um just really shifting sort of those six expectations like we I think denote success as being let's say a number of downloads number of sales or what have you I'm chasing like curiosity and I got away from that um you know there were opportunities that were sitting there I had a TV opportunity I had a few other and they just lack of interest they just kind of ghosted me or even the funding thing I shared with you earlier these are things that some people would just say no I'm not gonna do this or just you know you have just maybe a string of bad interviews or a string of interviews that you feel are bad or from from my perspective and I just had to kind of shift my mindset and I was just like I thought I was gonna fail at this so I thought I didn't deserve this so I thought it was gonna go bad and then it turned out to not go as good as I wanted it to be and I'm like yeah man exactly I was right and it's like no you could have been wrong you could have just and just really changed in my mindset not to have a 100 negative or even I call it realist but 100% sort of negative perspective but really just accept what's there and realize why you're doing it it's not to get X amount of downloads I didn't interview this person to get a million downloads interview this person because I was curious about their work and I think they'd be a fun conversation and really reattach myself to that going back to that that why I guess that's what was helpful for me cool so I want to move into the rapid fire portion of the conversation I've now added two new rapid fire questions yeah you said a few things that stuck out and now I gotta go a little bit deeper you gave yourself more work today so good job Henry thank you so and don't overthink these these you know quick answer things comes to mind here's the first one what's one knife that every amateur chef should own in your opinion your expert opinion I'm gonna say you're an expert damn
Henry Hyde: it something larger than a paring knife but smaller than a chef knife okay
rob lee: okay so you're getting engaged in okay see what I was expecting was it's like yeah you go to this website
Henry Hyde: right anything you see
rob lee: appreciate your plugs um and this is another one that's around opinion name something complimentary to a great knife to have an a great knife like another kitchen tool like if you got this and a great knife you're really you're really doing it big you're really in the right direction as far as crushing it in the kitchen
Henry Hyde: I really love my stainless kitchen tweezers they're like nose tweezers but like a foot long but then I would have to say like a ceramic honing rod it will sharpen your knife with like a it's like a sharpening stone but in stick form and you can just kind of keep your knife sharp at all times I love them they're fragile but they're really really nice
rob lee: all right take a note I'm gonna get one of these I'm not gonna put any amazon lake so what have you and I'll put you links to your place here really this is now getting a little uh this is more recent I'm gonna say the other one's the last so I think it's funny so what's in your garden you mentioned being in your garden what's in your garden currently what's wrong
Henry Hyde: right now we're having an explosion of snap peas um but we've got tomatoes squash cucumber uh broccoli beets okra arugula sage basil dill parsley cilantro uh peppers of every quality that you think of uh I'm sure I'm missing some of them brussel sprouts nice yeah
rob lee: I'm confident that you pickle things I can almost guarantee it
Henry Hyde: we pickle things yeah it is our first year growing because I just moved we just moved out to the county and um so we've got a nice nice little garden going out back my grandmother was a uh survived world war two she was from England but then moved around the caribbean and uh always kept a victory garden in her in her uh in her yard so my first memories are always working in the yard with my grandmother like the smell of like wet dirt it's like my childhood scent
rob lee: look so we can have candles next right wet dirt
Henry Hyde: sure yeah that'd be nice I would love that that'd be great high essences or what have you hi so
rob lee: here's the last one this is the more ridiculous one I wrote it and I was like this is kind of funny because I could see myself in in this spot do you ever go to like a restaurant and then you like all right I'm gonna have this great steak or what have you and then you reach down for the knife yeah I need better enough
Henry Hyde: yes yeah my wife my wife will catch me looking at the knives and uh I'm gonna be like um the shape is okay but the serrations are bad the handle is not comfortable yeah I do that all the time it's it's I love doing that yeah it's great
rob lee: great it's a nice snobber nice
Henry Hyde: snobbery I mean being a maker in any field is being a snob in that field you can't really be you know I imagine that you're a podcast snob but it's like a the timing was bad they didn't know the pace is awful
rob lee: one one of the things this may be just my overall snobbery because I the podcast is a thing but I go into full production mindset and I look at something and I'm I'm even more addicted to bottom I was like let me make this better for you I'm in that I'm in that stage now because I'm 40 now and I was like no one's telling me no anymore I was like ah I can make this better for you so that's kind of it we've covered a lot of ground getting a little bit more texture to the this this stage of the Henry Hyde story so if you will um no well there's two things I want to do one I want to thank you for coming back on to the podcast always a pleasure to chat and um and two I want to give you a space and opportunity to share with the listeners where they can check your workout where you can follow you all of that good stuff any shameless plugs you want to do the floor is yours
Henry Hyde: thank you thank you for having me um so most of the things I do is on Instagram it's a hide period handmade hide dot handmade um my my website is hidehandmadeknives.com uh I'm in a couple stores locally it's good neighbor in Hamden but I'm also in a couple of other knife stores around the country I will be doing craft shows around Baltimore and the DMV area generally this fall so keep an eye out for me um yeah and if you need your knives sharpen let me know
rob lee: and there you have it folks I want to again thank Henry Hyde for coming back onto the podcast and spending a bit of time with me and catching up and for Henry Hyde I am Rob Lee saying that there's art culture and community in and around your neck of the woods you just have to look for it
