How Our Knives Are Made
Eight Craftsmen, One Stage Each
Eight people work on the knives here. The work is divided by stage rather than each person building a blade end to end, because the two stages that decide whether a knife is any good — forge welding and heat treatment — reward doing the same thing thousands of times rather than occasionally.
Founder Philip Thapa has worked at this for 23 years and still works on the blades alongside the team.
The Team
Elias “Eli” Thorne
Master Blacksmith
Runs the forge welding, the stage where billets are made or lost.
James “Jim” Rudman II
Forge Manager
Keeps the forge schedule and billet quality consistent across the shop.
Isaac “Ike” Reeve
Master Bladesmith
Forges billets to blade shape, setting distal taper and balance.
Robert Anderson
Senior Blacksmith
Drawing out and folding, building the layer count in the billet.
Marcus Webb
Damascus Steel Specialist
Pattern development and the acid etch that reveals the layers.
Samuel “Sam” Hayes
Knife Maker & Finisher
Handle fitting and final finishing, blade by blade.
Daniel “Danny” Crowe
Forge Technician & Grinder
Grinds the bevels and sets thickness behind the edge.
Thomas “Tommy” Blackwood
Apprentice Blacksmith
Learning the trade the way it has always been taught: at the anvil.
What Happens at Each Stage
| Stage | What happens | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Billet preparation | 1095 and 15N20 cut, cleaned and stacked | Trapped scale becomes a permanent flaw |
| Forge welding | Brought to welding heat and hammered solid | The stage where billets fail; cannot be repaired later |
| Drawing and folding | Stretched, cut, folded, rewelded | Each fold doubles the layers and repeats the risk |
| Forging to shape | Steel moved toward the blade profile | Sets distal taper and how the knife balances |
| Normalising | Heated and air cooled, several cycles | Refines grain; skipping it shows up as chipping later |
| Heat treatment | Austenitised, quenched, tempered twice | Decides performance more than the steel choice does |
| Grinding | Bevels ground by hand, blade kept cool | Sets thickness behind the edge, which predicts cutting |
| Handle and finish | Scales fitted to that tang, etched, sharpened | Fitted individually, so no gap at the joint |
Forge Welding
Bars of 1095 and 15N20 are stacked, fluxed and brought to welding heat, then hammered until the separate bars become one piece of steel. The usable temperature window is roughly 250 degrees wide. Below it the layers will not bond; above it the steel burns and the billet is scrap. It is judged by eye, by colour, and it cannot be undone.
Heat Treatment
Blades are normalised, hardened and tempered individually rather than in batches. The same 1095 can leave a workshop at HRC 54 or HRC 61, and those are effectively different knives. Ours finish at HRC 58 to 60. Nothing about heat treatment is visible in a photograph, which is exactly why it gets skipped elsewhere and why we publish the number.
Grinding and Finishing
Bevels are ground by hand, and thickness behind the edge is set here — the measurement that predicts how a knife cuts better than any other. Scales are then shaped and fitted to that specific tang rather than to a standard. Which handle material to choose is a real decision, and our materials guide sets out honestly which grip best when wet and which are chosen for appearance.
What Dividing the Work Does and Does Not Give You
It gives you consistency. The person forge welding does it every day, so weld quality varies far less than if eight people each did a bit of everything.
It does not make blades identical. Every billet is forged and etched separately, so Damascus patterns differ between blades, including blades cut from the same billet. If you need two knives to match closely, tell us before ordering and we will cut them adjacent.
Keeping One Working
Everything we make is carbon steel, which means it will rust if neglected and sharpen easily if not. Our maintenance guide covers storage and rust prevention, and our sharpening guide covers the technique in full.
Browse the collection, or contact us and describe the work you need a knife for.