Forge
bar stock to blade, on camera
Every grind angle, every quench, every handle fit — documented from first spark to finished edge.
↑ 240mm chef knife, 1084 carbon — rough grind to mirror finish, uncut.
The work is the point.
No shortcuts. No mystery steel. Every bar of stock is identified, every heat treat is logged in a field notebook that lives on the bench, not in a spreadsheet.
The camera runs the whole time — not because the process is pretty, but because the people watching deserve to see what actually happens. The sparks, the mistakes, the second attempt at a ricasso grind that didn't sit right the first time.
1084 high carbon — forgiving to heat treat, takes a fine edge, holds it through real kitchen work.
Hollow-ground on a 10-inch wheel. Forty-five minutes per side. The geometry is everything.
Normalize three times, austenitize at 1475°F, interrupted quench into Parks 50.
Hand-sanded to 600, then stropped on leather until it shaves arm hair without touching skin.
No mystery.
Real tools.
Every piece of equipment on this list was bought with money from the channel or built by hand. No sponsorships, no affiliate deals with tools I wouldn't use myself.
"Variable speed, 1.5hp motor. The single tool that changed everything — spent two years on a 1×30 before building this one from a kit."
2×72 Belt Grinder
Primary shaping & finishing
Get the Shop List
Every grinder, steel supplier, handle material, and finishing supply — with notes on what I'd buy again and what I wouldn't.
Subscribers who watched the channel
and then picked up a hammer.
The comment section fills up with builds every week. First-timers finishing their first blade. Veterans sharing their quench data. People who paused the video forty times to get the grind angle right.
4,200+
subscriber builds
shared in comments
38
US states
represented
Marcus T.
Chef 210mm, O1 tool steel
Portland, OR
Diane W.
Camp knife, 1084, micarta handle
Bozeman, MT
Raj P.
1084+15n20 Damascus bowie
Austin, TX
Caitlin H.
Matching set, 5160 spring steel
Asheville, NC
Jordan K.
Bowie, W2 with hamon
Nashville, TN
Tomás R.
Gyuto 240mm, 52100 bearing steel
Denver, CO
Marcus T.
Chef 210mm, O1 tool steel
Portland, OR
Diane W.
Camp knife, 1084, micarta handle
Bozeman, MT
Raj P.
1084+15n20 Damascus bowie
Austin, TX
Caitlin H.
Matching set, 5160 spring steel
Asheville, NC
Jordan K.
Bowie, W2 with hamon
Nashville, TN
Tomás R.
Gyuto 240mm, 52100 bearing steel
Denver, CO
"Paused the hollow grind video 22 times. My first knife isn't pretty but it's sharp enough to shave and I understand why it works. That's the channel."
Elena Vasquez
subscriber since 2023 · Phoenix, AZ
"Damascus bowie — 1084 and 15n20, 300-layer ladder pattern. Stag antler handle if the blank holds together. Clip point still needs work on paper before it goes near steel."
— subscribe to watch this one come to life
Join the Bench.
Early access to new blade announcements, process notes from the shop, and the occasional mistake I made so you don't have to.
- —First look at new blades before they post
- —Shop notes — heat treat logs, steel notes
- —Community build highlights
- —The shop list PDF (free)