Building PetOS, AI triage for pet health. Ex-knifemaker. Boston to SF this fall. Always down to swap founder stories.

Sean Leong  • Peerlist

The Mad Chef started with a simple goal: create a signature chef's knife design I could be known for. I drew inspiration from my home of Oahu, tracing the aggressive curves of the Ko'olau Mountains, the arc of Pipeline's waves, and the bone structure of a fillet papio fish into a single blade profile. After sketching the design and building my first plexiglass prototypes, the knife looked mean and sharp in the best way. Channeling Gordon Ramsay's aggressive energy, I named it the Mad Chef. Gen 1 debuted in March 2020 in AEB-L stainless steel and immediately became my best seller at an average of $500 per piece. But I kept listening. Customer feedback and the natural evolution of each custom order revealed room to grow, so I pushed the design further artistically into Generation 2, offered in Nitro-V stainless and 1095 high carbon steel, averaging $650 per piece. The real turning point was Generation 3. After building relationships with professional chefs like Mark Noguchi and Shingo Katsura, I was exposed to the serious world of ergonomics, proper cutting technique, and what professionals actually demand from a working knife. I put over 100 hours into R&D on this generation alone, collaborating with my mentors Ken Onion and Jeff Park to refine every curve and transition. The result debuted in June 2023 in CPM-154 and Nitro-V, averaging $750 per piece, with Santoku variants following shortly after. The Mad Chef's signature look became the high-polish, hand-sanded, satin blade finish with stabilized Hawaiian curly Koa wood handles with brass mosaic pins and Korby bolt fasteners, with G-10 and stainless Korby bolts available for professional heavy-duty builds. Generation 3 is what I consider my masterpiece and the design I would manufacture as my flagship piece if I returned to Bladeworks full-time.