Duy Pham didn’t want to spend $600.

Seven years ago, the now-omakase chef at Hana Matsuri Glendale looked at his knives and realized it was time to replace the handles.

“Expensive Japanese knives are supposed to last a lifetime,” Pham explains, but “they emphasize and put all the work into the knife blade. The handle is an afterthought.”

When he brought his collection to local knife makers and discovered the potential bill, Pham made a decision: He would learn to make his own knife handles.

DIY projects being what they are, the chef wound up spending more money — about $1,000 on materials from The Home Depot — but discovered a new passion in the process. Though he compares his early attempts to “bad kindergarten paintings,” his skill improved with practice.

“I would buy factory handles and dissect them,” Pham says. “Each had a different construction, different blueprint.”

He started sharing his best creations, which he made for himself and his colleagues, on Instagram. One of the world’s foremost Japanese knife collectors came across his page and asked Pham to rehandle some of his utensils. Other customers followed suit, sending inquiries from around the world.

They were drawn not only to Pham’s attention to detail but to his creativity. While he started working with wood, Pham soon learned that material held onto bacteria, a no-no in kitchens, so he moved onto stabilized wood (which is nonporous and food-safe), carbon fiber, titanium, stainless steel and more inventive and rare materials such as reddish-hued Koa wood, mother of pearl and animal castoffs including antlers and teeth.

“A handle is a way to express individuality,” Pham says.

It was a new outlet for the chef and a much-needed change for a career approaching burnout.

Pham has a well-established history in the restaurant industry, starting with summer shifts at age 15 when he hoped to save money to pursue a degree in architecture. Instead, he made a name for himself working at now-shuttered Denver restaurants such as Normandy, Opal and Tante Louise, where he was named executive chef at 22.

Prior to his role at Hana Matsuri, in 2019 he helped open For[a]ged in downtown Denver’s Dairy Block. Pham worked as executive chef and brought his budding knife skills with him: His craftsmanship was displayed in a glass case behind the upstairs raw bar.

In time, Pham’s commitment to the ancient trade grew more serious. He wanted to make the blades too and connected with the Idaho-based Carter Cutlery Journeyman Program led by Murray Carter — a master bladesmith who apprenticed in Japan and worked in the country as a village bladesmith for 18 years.

Pham spent a full week with Carter, working and learning 8-10 hours a day.

“He’s very industrious and somewhat of a visionary,” Carter says of Pham. “He definitely has what the Japanese would call biteki kankaku, a sense of beauty, someone who has an eye for beauty.”

Pham’s curious hobby had developed into a true craft. He converted the garage at his rental home into a workshop, filling it with a power hammer, drill press, table saw and more. His reputation grew. And while he wasn’t making much money from the side hustle, he found joy in it.

But the pressure of working full-time as an executive chef and committing his free hours to knife-making eventually caught up to Pham. He decided to step away from For[a]ged in mid-2023, leaving behind his inventory of knives. He moved houses and found the new garage too dark for his work, so he was forced into a break from his creative outlet.

A year ago, Pham joined the third Hana Matsuri in Colorado as part-owner and launched an omakase program unique to the Japanese fusion and sushi restaurant’s Glendale location.

Now that he’s settled again, he plans to restart his knife-making this summer.

“I want to fall in love with the whole process again,” he says.

Pham considers himself a novice when it comes to bladesmithing, and he won’t be selling his own knives for a while. But he’ll be back to making handles and wood covers, crafting gifts for loved ones and building an inventory before likely expanding to farmers’ markets.

The chef, who turns 50 this year, now views knife-making as his retirement plan, something to keep him occupied and fulfilled when he’s no longer working the line in a busy restaurant.

“I can’t stay still,” Pham says. “I always have to continue to learn.”