Knife Making Workshop: Forged Chef Knife

Chef Knife Making Workshop, 1-day Hands-on experience 

Location: Brookvale, NSW 2100 (Northern Beaches, Sydney)

Come spend an exciting day with us on this practical introduction to knife making, and go home with your very own hand forged  chef knife from high carbon steel and a beautiful handle!

You will experience shaping your own knife with hammer and fire, as well as learn a bit about the forge, anvil, tools and techniques used in blacksmithing.

This is the most involved workshop we have and includes forging your own blade, heat treating it yourself, grinding it to shape and attaching it to a pre-made handle.

This is a full-on day from 8 am to 4 pm consisting of:

• Safety briefing, tool overview, hammer/anvil/grinder/heat treatment
• Blacksmithing: Forging your own blade form high-carbon steel
• Heat treatment: Heat to non-magnetic and quench your blade
• Lunch break: hydrate after forging session and get some food into you
• Grinding room: Safety, tool overview, grinder operation, blade grinding technique
• Grinding the blade: profile to your design, grind bevels to sharp
• Finishing the blade: Progress to high grit belts and finish with scotch brite for a satin grinder-finish
• Handle fitting: select a pre-made handle and attach this to your chef knife
• Sharpening: we will sharpen your completed Forged Chef Knife before you finish for the day

1-day hands-on experience where you will make your own forged Chef Knife

Included:

• All materials required (carbon steel, hammers, tongs, anvil, gas forge, PPE, grinder, abrasives etc)
• Forging your own knife with hammer and anvil
• Help with grinding bevels or forging as required, we are there to help
• heat treating your own blade by heating and quenching in oil
• All instructions and support required

Your day: 08.00 am to 4.00 pm with a couple of short breaks.

The day starts with a Safety Briefing and then we discuss what it takes to get into knife making as a hobby.

The tools required, where to source materials, safe working practises and an overview of the project of the day.

Because this is the most involved workshop we hold, we have changed the day to start earlier and finish later, to give you more time to craft a great chef knife. 

**This is a small workshop of max 4 students. To reschedule your spot to a different date and not forfeit your spot, requires 48 hours notice before the workshop is scheduled to start **

You will do the following on your day:

• hand forging to shape
• hammering in bevels
• drawing out the tang and turning this into the handle
• heat treatment of carbon steel including quenching the blade and tempering
• Completing the knife blade by grinding it to shape
• Note: to complete the knife in one day, we will use pre-made handles and there is no handle construction component of this course.

Suitable For:

• Anyone over 16 years old with an interest in blacksmithing
• Anyone able to lift a 1 kg hammer over the head and hammer "for a while" (we will help if you get tired)
• Anyone able to follow basic safety instructions as provided by your instructor who is with you every step of the way.

We recommend wearing full-length pants and closed-toe shoes on the day. We will provide leather blacksmith aprons and suitable eye and ear protection. Expect to get hit by some hot scale that might land on you from the forge, (long sleeves and pants is the way to go.)

The workshop will be held in the back yard of our location in Brookvale, Northern Beaches Sydney. This is an industrial setting outside, under roof with basic facilities. Lunch break will be from noon to 1 PM, there are several cafes in the area, as well as 2 craft breweries within 5 min walk (Nomad Brewery and 4 Pines Brewery) but there will no alcohol permitted until after any sharp tools are put away.

**The small text: We may need to assist on some of the steps to get it all done in one day. For instance grinding the bevels, tempering the blade and sharpening we might have to assist you with. But we will aim to let you do as much as possible of this yourself. If you get tired of the hammering and we have to assist, we may have to help you with some decisions on how to complete your project, in order to finish on time. 99% of people finish their own project, so far we have helped 2 people who got a bit overwhelmed after having had hundreds of students do this class over several years. (updated September 2023)