When Aaron Franklin, the James Beard Award-winning pitmaster behind Franklin Barbecue in Austin, keeps these knives in his personal kitchen, the rest of us should probably take notice. The Portland company drop-hammer forges its blades from 52100 carbon steel, the alloy used in industrial bearings, and heat-treats them to 65 HRC, harder than most of what you'd find at a knife shop. The Signature Knife and Board Set bundles the 8" chef, 4" paring, and 10" bread knife, all with stabilized Oregon Big Leaf Maple Burl handles, with two patent-pending SteelCore cutting boards in 18"x12" and 9"x6", steel-reinforced and dual-sided. Every knife comes with free lifetime sharpening.