We’re very excited to be joining our friends at Labour and Wait and Community Cutlery for an evening all about sharp knives, butchery tips and looking after the things we use every day for a real pre-fathers day treat.
On Thursday 18th June, Labour and Wait will be hosting Gareth Heaton of Community Cutlery at their new Covent Garden shop to celebrate the release of his book Do Maintain: How to Sharpen Your Knives, Scissors and Garden Tools — and we’re lucky enough to be part of the evening too.
If you haven’t come across Gareth before, he’s spent years sharpening knives for everyone from home cooks to professional kitchens, while gently flying the flag for repairing and maintaining things rather than endlessly replacing them. It’s a philosophy we’ve always had a lot of time for at Blacklock.
During the day, Gareth will be sharpening kitchen knives in-store from 11.30am onwards. If you bring along a kitchen knife in the days leading up to the event and pick up a copy of Do Maintain, Gareth will sharpen it for you on the 18th. Spaces are limited to the first 50 knives dropped off in the lead-up to the event, so it’s worth getting in early.
Then from 7pm, we’ll all settle in for a relaxed evening of drinks, bites and conversation. You are welcome to arrive earlier if you fancy mooching around the shop too!
Gareth will be chatting about knife care, and our very own Winston Barker Wojciech Smietalo will dive into home butchery, different cuts of meat and the way we approach whole-animal butchery at Blacklock. Nothing too formal – more the sort of conversation we’d usually end up having across the chopping block or over a cocktail after service.
There’ll also be plenty of practical tips for cooking at home, whether that’s choosing the right cut, looking after your knives properly or making the most of ingredients that don’t always get the spotlight.
And because no evening is complete without a drink in hand, there’ll be Old Fashioneds and a few pre-chop bites floating around too.
Labour and Wait have been champions of well-made, useful things for years, so this collaboration felt like a very natural fit. We all share a love for craftsmanship, sustainability and the idea that things made properly whether that’s a knife, a pan or a pork chop are worth taking care of.
If that sounds like your sort of evening, we’d love to see you there.
Keep your eyes peels for tickets, spaces limited!