Hunter Valley Blades By Mert Tansu

Mert Tansu has become well known for making some of the most refined and beautifully finished knives in the industry. His new line known as Hunter Valley Blades is offering a more cost effective version of his ultra high end Tansu Knives. below you will find the story of how Mert came to be such a well respected Knife Maker. 

Back in 2005 as a chef I wanted to use the best tools available to be more efficient at my craft and I soon realized common brand name knives weren’t up to the task.

They were made with “ease of production” in mind rather than the cutting performance, comfort, quality of the steel or the heat treatment; all of which determines the edge and the longevity of the tool.

After much research I moved from German knives to Japanese and then to custom ones made to my specs by custom knife makers.  

However even with the custom ones I felt like there were a few things missing to make the cutting more enjoyable so I decided to start making my own knives to use in my kitchen in 2013.

I visited well known makers here in Australia and in the USA to learn how to forge blades, make San Mai and Damascus. One year later I was getting custom orders for knives from all over the world and building a strong reputation for my knives cutting ability.

After winning best new maker and best kitchen knife at a couple of shows I was getting more and more requests for custom work and was being featured in knife magazines. In April 2018, I hung up my chef jacket to become a full time knife maker.