Create a custom chef’s knife

What you’ll take home: A full sized chef’s knife with a Damascus steel cladded blade and a hidden tang wooden handle.

Experience requirement - Some DIY experience is beneficial, as this is the most hands-on experience i run.

Equipment needed - Natural legwear (jeans are perfect, no Nylon fabrics etc.) and strong leather shoes. I will be providing all the protective equipment.

Lunch: Freshly brewed coffee ,  hot drinks and biscuits will be provided. For lunch you can bring your own or find tasty options around the workshop. 

Total of four students per class.

This is my exclusive knife making course, and is ideal for those that want to craft something that is truly custom and unique. We’re working towards a knife that you’ll be able to use every day, be it in the home or professional kitchen. You are welcome to use my blade designs or bring your own.

By the end of the 16 hour experience, you’ll have created a beautifully crafted, razor sharp hidden tang 160-170mm knife that you can be truly proud of. The course isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s hard work, but you’ll appreciate every drop of sweat and you will be immensely proud, when you hold a tool that you personally handcrafted.

You’ll understand the key pieces of the process of making a knife, see each of the processes in action, and get experience creating your blade. You will be given a san-mai billet which has been prepped and forge-welded prior of the course, I use 80crv2 British high carbon steel for the core.

Forging- At the end of this initial process, we will have finished the forging of your knife’s rough profile and blade thickness, Then we will use the belt grinders to shape the blade to your final design.

Heat-treating stage

Annealing cycle - In this important stage the steel softens, looses all stress created through forging, resize the grain structure and makes it more responsive to the hardening treatment we’ll go through.

Hardening cycle - we’ll heat the blade up to over 820, then quench it into hot oil. This is incredibly fun to do, and usually includes a little fire. The process makes the steel incredibly hard but very brittle.

Tempering - This process reduces the toughness of the steel, but increases its strength to be able to take and hold an edge for as long as you use your knife respectfully.

Grinding the bevels - this is a crucial part of the process, you will be using the belt grinders and knife grinding jigs to shape the bevels of your knives, essentially what makes a piece of steel being able to slice through most things.

Revealing the Damascus Pattern - this is probably my favourite part of the course, and I find it incredibly addictive. We will be dipping the knife into a mix of ferric chloride and water to bring out the randomised Damascus pattern. You can never know exactly what this will look like, and is unique to your knife.

Handle making and glueing - I’ll give you a chance to select through various woods I have on hand, such as oak, mahogany, elm and walnut. Once you’ve selected your preferred wood, we’ll will prep the block during day 1 and in day 2 you’ll use the belt grinder to create a beautiful handle.

When complete, we’ll attach the wooden handle to the tang using a high quality epoxy resin. We never suggest you use a dishwasher on the stunning piece you’ll be creating. The highly salty environment of the dishwasher will corrode your blade and eat into the wood.

Sharpening and Stropping - I will be sharpening your blades and then you will learn how to strop on leather, to take the blade to a razor sharpness level. A leather strop is the best tool to replace the steel rod that you potentially have used to sharpen cheap knives.

****Please make every effort to chose a course date that you can commit to, my courses fill up quickly and making changes to group numbers is costly and time consuming. Once you have selected a date you can transfer the date of your course once only, moving the date of your course for a second time will incur a £65 fee. You have the right to a refund up to 14 days after your purchase, as I am a small business I cannot offer refunds outside of this period. You can alter the date of your course up to six weeks before the start date, after this date your booking will be confirmed and is non-transferable. If you fail to turn up for your course you forfeit your place and no refund will be given.