Tradecraft takes Scout readers into the workshops, kitchens, and toolkits of Vancouver’s most talented crafts-people. From trusty pencils and custom-built machines to good luck charms and bespoke chef’s knives, this new column aims to get to the bottom of every creative attachment. No laptops or cellphones allowed!

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Today we hear from Les Amis du Fromage cheesemonger and all around awesome guy Joe Chaput, who knows his way around a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano (and has the tools to efficiently deal with it, too).

1. Box cutter aka “The Shank” | We get deliveries every day. Many of these items are very expensive, and they’ve travelled halfway around the world to get to us. Not surprisingly, they’re packed carefully to protect the precious cheese inside them. That means almost everything comes in some type of box, and there is usually more than one of them. We spend almost as much time putting away and organizing cheese as we do selling it.

2. Boska Parmigiano Cutter | “We’re busy. There’s no time for a cutting of the wheel celebration, or as we call it ‘Tuesday’. This bad boy splits a whole wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano lickety-split.”

3. Printing Scales | “Just because Allison has nice handwriting and can remember cheese prices and PLU codes like Kim Peek, it doesn’t mean the rest of us can keep pace. With 500+ types of cheese and constantly changing prices, our networked Bizerba price computing scales makes life easier.”

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