Photo by Ben Slowey
Nathan Zimmerman of ZimKnives
Nathan Zimmerman of ZimKnives
ZimKnives specializes in handmade cutting tools and sharpening services. Owned by Nathan Zimmerman, the store recently opened on North Avenue at Uptown Crossing, not far from the Milwaukee-Wauwatosa border. It is the first knife-specific store in Milwaukee. Whether you need a custom knife, blacksmithing classes or garden tools tapered, Zimknives has it all.
Nathan Zimmerman has been practicing cutlery for over a decade. Formative to his interest in the field had been fantasy video games, trips to Old World Wisconsin seeing the blacksmith forging, and helping in his father’s engineering shop from a young age. “I’ve always been creative and have always wanted to make things,” Zimmerman said. “In middle school I took jewelry and tech ed classes, and without those I don’t think I’d be doing what I do. I had access to tools I never knew existed before. I really give those art teachers a lot of credit.”
In late high school and early college, Zimmerman began watching bushcraft and knifesmithing videos on YouTube. He found a job as a knife sharpener with The Sharp Brothers via a Craigslist ad. “I was already into collecting knives by that time,” Zimmerman recalls. “The leap I made from sharpening knives to making them wasn’t that huge; I started out putting new handles on knives and doing repairs until I got interested in making my own, and then I became obsessed with it.”
Make it a Business
Photo by Ben Slowey
ZimKnives workshop
ZimKnives workshop
Making knives became a hobby of Zimmerman’s for about five years before he had any intention of making it his business. He would give knives as gifts for family and friends, and people eventually became interested in buying them from him. “For a while I was just working out of my parents’ garage and basement,” Zimmerman continues. “I slowly started building up my tools, and at some point, a guy named Justin Carlisle contacted me, asking me to make 30 steak knives for his restaurant Ardent. With the deposit for that, I rented my first shop, where I finished that order. That was instrumental in catapulting me into my business.”
Fast forward about eight years, Zimmerman moved into his new current shop, which officially opened at the end of November. ZimKnives now has a storefront and larger working space. It has morphed into somewhat of a family business with Zimmerman’s parents helping him run the shop. “I really feel like I’m properly up and running here and I’m wildly thrilled about it,” he remarks.
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ZimKnives will sharpen anything from kitchen knives to lawn mower blades to axes to hand saws to chainsaw chains and more. They also carry sharpening stones and knife storage equipment for those who prefer to sharpen at home. “We can handle pretty much everything at this point besides ice skates,” Zimmerman explains. “It’s really cool to work with other professionals. I’m not only sharpening knives for some of the best restaurants in town; I’m also sharpening saw blades for some of the coolest woodworking shops.”
Private Lessons
The shop plans to offer private lessons for blacksmithing, knifemaking and forging in the near future. Zimmerman previously offered them at his old shop and will gradually implement them as he continues getting settled into the new space. “If other knifemakers hadn’t shown me how they do what they do then I wouldn’t be doing what I do, and I don’t own that knowledge, so I think spreading it around can only be a good thing,” Zimmerman notes. “Plus, I learn more about knifemaking every time I teach so it’s valuable for me as well.”
In terms of custom pieces, Zimmerman prices them based on a tier scale (Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary) also inspired by fantasy gaming. He is not taking custom orders at the moment in order to work on finishing stock in the storefront and on Zimknives’ website.
A prized custom piece Zimmerman recently made in collaboration with Hillsboro, Missouri-based Halcyon Forge is a “Sea Feather” sword, currently housed in Zimknives’ display case. He shares its backstory, “Back to my love for fantasy gaming, the swords and weapons and other cool objects in the game were always my favorite part, so being able to bring those things into real life is one of my favorite parts of my job. My good friend down in Missouri and I talked for years about doing a project together, so I went down there, and he forged the sword while I did all the hilting, polishing and grinding. It’s definitely one of my proudest pieces to date.”
Going Worldwide
Zimmerman has made knives for not only some of the finest restaurants in town but for chefs across the country and around the world as well, including in the U.K. and on the island of Ibiza. “It’s a very worldwide community,” he said about knifemaking. “I’m friends with knifemakers from Thailand, the UK, Ukraine, South Africa … everyone shares ideas and techniques with one another and it’s a really cool thing to be a part of.”
He cites the feedback he gets from professional chefs as particularly meaningful, elaborating, “They use knives in a way that most home users don’t or can’t—it’s something that they use all day, every day. They’re looking for cutting geometry and really good edge retention on their knives that will last them several services.”
Finishing elaborate custom pieces is profoundly fulfilling to Zimmerman as well. One he did for a client was a knife where the handle was themed on the book Charlotte’s Web; Zimmerman looks back on his work there, “It’s the person’s favorite book and they love cooking, so they wanted to merge those two things,” he said. “I used resin and the book itself to make a block of material to put in the handle. They named the knife “Fern.” It was a really sweet, wholesome thing and they loved the work that I did. Like many artists do, I struggle with impostor syndrome sometimes, but it’s moments like that where it really makes what I do feel valued.”
From May to October, Zimmerman can be found alongside The Sharp Brothers at the Waukesha and Greenfield farmers markets every weekend—Saturday and Sunday, respectively—with appearances at markets in Brookfield and Fox Point as well. He sharpens, displays his custom knives and occasionally brings a forging demo setup. “It’s a great way to get sharpening done because we do it right on the site,” Zimmerman said about the markets. “You can drop off your items, go and shop, and then have finished sharp knives to take home with you that same day.”
Zimmerman would love to do more live blacksmithing for folks both at ZimKnives and around the city. “A friend of mine is a teacher at a Montessori school, and they were doing a science project about the states of matter, so he brought them to my blacksmith shop to learn about how heat affects materials,” he gave as an example. “The kids were excited,and they learned a whole lot; it was really fun to educate.”
He also hopes to employ a few friends in due time.
On the biggest things he’s learned through his journey with ZimKnives, Zimmerman shares, “There’s so much that goes into running a business that’s not actually making your product. There are endless things to plan and tasks to figure out, and that’s the hardest part about all of this; making knives is easy compared to running a business. It’s a huge undertaking. You also learn how valuable the people in your life truly are because of the support they give you. Never underestimate how much something as simple as telling your friend that they did a good job helps with whatever they’re doing.”
ZimKnives (4404 W. North Ave.) is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit their website at zimknives.com to shop or get in touch.
