One bar of steel, four days, one knife.
Belt, bushcraft, neck and pocket knives forged from carbon steel and ground by hand, with a handle fitted to the buyer. A few on the bench; the rest are made to order.
On the bench now
Belt knife, 110
from €240.00
- Material
- Carbon 1.2419, brass guard, stabilised birch
- Size
- 110 mm blade, 4.2 mm spine
- Edition
- Two on the bench
Bushcraft, 125
from €265.00
- Material
- Carbon 1.2419, forced patina, canvas micarta
- Size
- 125 mm blade, 4.8 mm spine
- Edition
- One on the bench
Neck knife, 75
from €145.00
- Material
- Carbon 1.2419, moulded sheath included
- Size
- 75 mm blade, 3.4 mm spine
- Edition
- Three on the bench
Folder, 80
from €210.00
- Material
- Stainless 14C28N, textured green micarta
- Size
- 80 mm blade, 3.0 mm spine
- Edition
- Made to order
About the steel
- The bar
- Carbon 1.2419 from Lohmann in Witten, bought as round bar and forged down. Nothing is cut from sheet
- The forging
- Drawn out under the hammer at orange heat, then normalised three times so the grain closes up before it is hardened
- The heat
- Hardened in oil and tempered twice in the same week, by the person who forged it, and filed to check it took
- The hardness
- 61 HRC on the field knives and 59 on the folder, which is a trade: harder holds an edge longer and chips sooner
- The grind
- Full flat to a convex edge, finished on stones and a strop. The bevel is wide because a thin one is quick to make and slow to live with
- The handle
- Stabilised birch, micarta or canvas, pinned through the tang in brass or steel. No glue holding anything closed
Carbon steel asks for four things
Wipe it dry
Water and acid are what rust a carbon blade, and both come off with a cloth in the five seconds after you have finished with it.
Strop it
Ten passes a side on leather puts back the edge that stropping is for. It is not sharpening and it does not take the steel away.
Oil the blade
Any food-safe oil, wiped on and wiped off. A blade that lives in a drawer needs it more than one that is used every day.
Let it grey
Carbon steel goes from bright to grey to blue-grey, and the film it grows is what stops it rusting. Scouring it back to bright starts that again.
Made to your hand
Pick the blade length in millimetres, the steel and the handle material, and the knife is forged to that drawing rather than picked out of a drawer. The price follows the length.
Blunt, chipped, or a handle that has had enough
Any knife of ours comes back for a new edge, a new handle or a straightened tip, whatever year it left. Say which knife and what happened to it, and a price and a posting label come back. Knives by other makers are taken too, at the same rates.