BLADE Magazine

Cool Custom: Jose Santiago-Cummings BBQ Knife

BLADE Staff
Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and living today in Tacoma, Washington, Jose is a retired 30-year Army veteran who used the G.I. Bill to attend a two-week forging class at the New England School of Metalwork in 2012. He’s had to recently forego using a hammer due to wrist problems. Today he makes knives via stock removal, though he hopes to install a forge and do some forging when he moves to a new home in North Carolina. (Jocelyn Frasier knife image)

Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and living today in Tacoma, Washington, Jose is a retired 30-year Army veteran who used the G.I. Bill to attend a two-week forging class at the New England School of Metalwork in 2012. He’s had to recently forego using a hammer due to wrist problems. Today he makes knives via stock removal, though he hopes to install a forge and do some forging when he moves to a new home in North Carolina. (Jocelyn Frasier knife image)

The Jose Santiago-Cummings BBQ Knife will rock your brisket.

Among Jose Santiago-Cummings’ growing ranks of customers are those he describes as “foodies,” and he built his second BBQ Knife expressly for them.

Not unlike a pirate boarding cutlass in appearance, the long, curved blade is designed for the rocking slices needed to cut meat and brisket. It’s similar to how a slicer is used as opposed to, for example, a nakiri for chop cuts.

Jose Santiago-Cummings

Jose, 62, used a cylindrical drum-sander-like attachment on a Ram tool to carve the grooves in the long, upswept handle. Jimmy Floyd forged the clip-point blade of damascus clad in wrought iron.

BBQ Knife Specs
Maker: Jose Santiago-Cummings
Blade length: 8.5”
Blade steel: Damascus of 1084 carbon and 15N20 nickel-alloy steels clad in wrought iron
Blade grind: Flat
Handle: Black and orange G-10 resin
Overall length: 13.25”
Maker’s price for a similar knife: $450-$475

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