Knife Making Tools Guide is written by Mike, a blacksmith and knife maker who runs Soulful Iron in the UK.
The aim is simple: tell people what they actually need to start making knives, at whatever budget they have, and what they can safely skip. Most "best tools" pages online are written by people who have never ground a bevel. This one is written from a working forge.
What you'll find here
- Guides to the tools for both ways of making a knife: stock removal (grinding from flat bar) and forging.
- Buying advice at real budgets, with UK and US prices and honest "don't buy" notes.
- Free 1:1 knife templates: original designs in several sizes, with a ruler on every sheet to check the print.
- Workshop calculators, coming soon.
How the guides are written
Every guide is researched against primary sources (steel makers' datasheets, manufacturers' manuals, Knife Steel Nerds for steel data, gov.uk for law) and listed at the bottom of the page. Where a guide needs hands-on results, they come from Mike's workshop and are marked as tested. Where testing hasn't happened yet, the page says so.
See how we test and how we make money.
Corrections
Spotted a mistake? We'd rather know. Contact details to come.