When your old knives no longer make the grade, should you buy British or Japanese, stainless steel or carbon steel, factory-made or handmade?

In Deptford, south-east London, Holly Loftus hand-crafts between 10 and 15 knives a month. The least expensive of these could be yours for £160, while the dearest might set you back as much as £580. What do you get for your money if you seriously splash out? Loftus, who was born in Ireland and is soft spoken and gently thoughtful, takes her time with this question. “It’s to do with how much time I’ve spent combining different steels,” she says, hesitantly. “Some of the knives involve a layering technique – people know it as damascus steel – which creates a pattern on the blade. It takes a long time. There’s a lot of folding and cutting and hammering.”

Such a knife is likely to be with its owner for a good while – perhaps for ever. “I’m lucky,” she continues. “The people who buy my knives have a strong sense of what they’re getting. It’s not going to be the same as an off-the-shelf, factory-made knife. They know they’re going to have to look after it.”