Sometimes we are confronted by the big questions in life, like ‘Which way is up?’. Nick Anger does not answer these questions for us. He does, however, sympathize with the premise, as communicated and visualized here through apparitions in steel. The mind-bending damascus artistry is shaped at Nick’s Vermont workshop into a robust and powerful vegetable cleaver featuring symmetrical, compound ‘S-grind’ bevels with a sharp, thin, yet tough 191mm / 7.5″ edge that sits below the superbly shaped convex section. Standing 74mm tall at the heel and weighing 11.4oz / 326g overall, there is no denying the capacity of this one-of-a-kind tool to conquer the kitchen. To take the psychedelic creation into the hand, fingers wrapped around the forged integral bolster, curly black oak, and black micarta, is to elevate the cooking experience to another plane.