Every bit as uniquely styled as it is functionally designed and finely crafted, the Floating Ginkgo Leaf Chef is artist Toma Fenes’ newest work of culinary art. Forged by hand at his studio in northern Romania with geometry and balance oriented towards everyday cooking in kitchens small or large, the 207mm / 8.1″ blade is shaped from 26c3 ‘spicy white’ carbon steel and inlaid with a beautiful mosaic of brass and copper. The clean, simple, high-performance 26c3 alloy is prized by chef knife makers for its fine grain structure, ability to harden with precision, and the thin, sharp edge it enjoys. Beneath the forge-finished flats which bare the marks of its hand-hammered origins, the blade’s symmetrical bevels are nicely convex with a silky, satin finish, slimming downwards to a sharp, slim edge that delivers both toughness and strength without sacrificing precision or finesse. Robust in the rear closest to the 53mm-tall heel, the blade will excel at big chopping tasks, while its spine’s distal taper delivers progressively thinner geometry moving toward a tip. That forward stretch retains the mass needed of a daily workhorse, and exhibits a touch of lateral flexibility as well. The knife’s ability to cut with the best is without question, and so we turn now to the artful and refined styling of this one-of-a-kind tool. Matching the ginkgo leaf inspired handle form are carved leaves of copper and brass inlaid into the blade, on both sides as well as on the spine. As if water droplets are reflecting the morning’s warm light, dozens of raised ten zogan dot inlays of the same materials are found throughout both blade and grip. The handle itself is engineered to combine comfort, utility, and elegance in a novel ‘floating’ construction approach. Resulting from Toma’s boundless creativity in which two pieces of solid, work-hardened copper have been shaped by hand into opposing panels, each secured to the blade’s tang with a pair of stainless steel screws, a welcoming, hollow, and head-turning take on cutlery handle design is achieved. Even along the handle’s interior walls the ginkgo motif continues to marvelous effect.