Make Your Own Knife in the Cotswolds

You’ve maybe thought about making a knife before. Perhaps you’ve watched Forged in Fire, or seen knife-making YouTube videos, and wondered if you could actually do it yourself.

Maybe you’re worried that knife-making is too difficult, or you’re too old (or too young!)?

Here’s what I’ve learned teaching knife-making courses at Soulful Iron: if you can swing a hammer, you can (with tuition) make a blade.

Honestly. The blacksmithing & knife making isn’t about superhuman strength or mystical metalworking knowledge – it’s about learning how steel behaves when you heat it, and having someone show you the techniques that actually work.

Knife Making Courses for All Abilities

I’m Mike, and I run blade-making courses here in Slad, in the Cotswolds. This is traditional blacksmithing applied to knife craft. In the class, you’ll work at a real forge, with proper tools, creating a functional knife from start to finish. Or I run Blacksmithing courses, making hooks, pokers etc.

Each knife-making course or Blacksmithing day is hands-on throughout:

• Heat the steel in the forge until it glows the right colour
• Hammer and shape your blade on the anvil
• Grind the bevels to create the cutting edge
• Fit and finish the handle to your design
• Sharpen until it’s genuinely sharp and ready to use

During my workshops, I will guide you through each stage, teaching you the skills as we go. The courses work for complete beginners – I’ve taught teenagers, grandparents, people who’ve hardly held a hammer before!

Gift Vouchers & Booking

Looking for an unusual gift? Vouchers are available that are valid for a full year, giving someone the chance to learn a traditional craft and create something they’ll treasure. Booking is straightforward and bookable online.

For those wanting to learn more advanced techniques, I’ll soon be offering Damascus steel courses where you’ll create a blade with those distinctive layered patterns.

When you finish your blacksmithing or knife-making course, and you’re holding that hook, poker, or knife, bearing the hammer marks from your own work, you’ve created something genuinely useful using skills that go back thousands of years.

Whether it’s a viking style Blacksmith’s knife you’ll use daily or a larger Seax-style Damascus knife, it’s yours, and you made it!