Find out more about these locally made knives, the creator behind them, and a sale going on through Aug. 28.
Professional chefs and home cooks can agree that a kitchen knife can make or break an entire meal. Almost 30 years ago, New West KnifeWorks founder Corey Milligan’s Teton dreams began like many others: working as a raft guide in the summers and supplementing his income with restaurant shifts in order to carve out a life in western Wyoming.
“I wanted to find something I could do so I could stay here,” Milligan remembers. “I always loved to cook, so I started messing around to see if I could make a knife. I was using pretty simple tools at first, and it’s constantly been evolving from there.”
For about 15 years, Milligan crafted knives and sold them at art shows all over the U.S. before opening up the first New West KnifeWorks storefront in Jackson. At the time, commercial knives all looked pretty generic, white or black handles and lacking flair. Milligan’s colorful knife sets stood out.
Walking into the store off Town Square, New West KnifeWorks feels more like an art gallery than a kitchen appliance store—an intentional decision to showcase the company’s ethos: Knives should be more than just a tool.
Aesthetics aside, the edge hold, precision and durability are what have earned these knives praise from professional chefs around the world. Part of Milligan’s goal was to create “the finest knives in the world.
”What set the New West knives apart are the materials, both the steel blade and the handle. “It’s like cooking,” Milligan says. “You need good ingredients or the end product isn’t going to cut it.”
The company uses a U.S.-made, high-performance, CPM (crucible particle metallurgy) steel, which essentially allows for a very fine-grained steel with a homogenized structure. Milligan compares it to the water molecules in pure, clean ice compared to grainy snow like powder.
That steel composition allows for superior edge hold, stain resistance and toughness. That, combined with New West’s precision grinding equipment leads to an unimaginably sharp blade. As Milligan says, “It gives you the holy grail of cutting edges.”
The knife-making process (all done in Victor, Idaho) is a combination of precision machining and hand-done process. Machinery cuts and grinds the blade and the rough shape handle, then a knife maker hand-finishes the blade and assembles the knife to put the finishing touches on each piece. “A knife is an extension of your hand, so the details on the fit and finish is super important,” Milligan explains. New West offers free sharpening for life, so you can mail your knives in or drop them off in a store for free tuneups at any time.
The company has really taken off in the last five years, with the factory now in Victor and storefronts in Jackson; Park City, Utah; Napa Valley, California; and Aspen and Denver, Colorado. Milligan says the mountain lifestyle keeps the momentum forward thinking, always fostering new ideas and promoting improvement. “Moving here and living this lifestyle is pretty unconventional,” says Milligan. “Myself and the people that work for me, we’re unconventional. It’s a gathering place of people willing to be out of the box in life, and when you work with people like that, there aren’t as many boundaries that can hold you back. I think Jackson is full of those awesome people that you don’t find in a normal place, and we’re just going to keep growing.”
National Knife Day is just around the corner (Aug. 24) and there are a series of events starting on Aug. 18. See the full schedule here and be sure to shop the sale (up to 30 percent off) through Aug. 28.
Ingredients
- 4 medium-size beets in assorted colors
- 2 to 3 green onions
- Fresh chevre to taste
- 3 handfuls watercress or arugula
- 1 to 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Cut beets into small matchsticks. Chop green onions, and toss everything together.
- Add salt to taste.
