Blog

On Wed 17th of May Riley and Christian hosted the second live stream of the Australian Beginner Knifemaking Awards 2023, here are the slides with some summary comments:AgendaHow to enter?What photos to take for the judges for max scoring?Your HostsHosted by Riley Burns and Christian Mathieson, the Live streams is an opportunity to go over the criteria in a bit more detail, offer help and answer questions. Plus there is a giveaway on every stream as a thank you for taking part!The stream goes out …

Chris Boon sent us some photos of his amazing tanto, check these out!The blade is 300 mm in 1084 high carbon steel, ground and finished to a high level.The guard - or tsuba - is made from W2 steel with high-gloss polished copper spacers on either side.The blade collar - habaki - is made from brass, and the beautiful handle is made from Australian Ringed Gidgee and Acrylester, with a mosaic pin. Acrylester is a synthetic material that drills and grinds well but can be somewhat too brittle for a w …

-- or "no samurais allowed in Melbourne? "-- By Bjorn J, May 2023Going to my first ever knife showThe Melbourne Knife Show 2023 was my first ever show as a maker. I have been to many shows with Nordic Edge but this was the first time I got a table and had things I had made myself on the table. The Melbourne show is the only Guild show in Australia, having run for over 30 years. This is the story of a short sword that was going to be the "centre piece" on my table. But it …

The Australian Knife Making Awards or AWARDS for short is a free to enter, online knife making competition held each year in May by Nordic Edge for the Australian and New Zealand knifemaking community.Each maker gets feedback on their knife to help up their knife making, as well as the opportunity to win trophies and prizes.We are very lucky to partner with the Australian Knifemakers Guild for scoring and judging the knives, so you will get quality feedback from very experienced makers here.Host …

Now this is a special anvil stand! Steve C from Black Rose Studio in Northern NSW was kind enough to share with us detailed plans for how he made this awesome anvil stand with retractable wheels. Check out his story here:It was time to level up my anvil game.I'd been learning on one of those tiny ubiquitous 10kg ones. If you're grinning wryly, you know what I mean... it had served me well but I'd reached its limit; too small a face, too thick a horn, soft steel hardy hole rounded out a bit, and …

The Australian Knife Making Awards is a free, online knife making competition organised by Nordic Edge in May every year.The judging is done by the Australian Knifemakers Guild, each maker taking part gets feedback on their knife.This year it all kicks off with the Kick-off presentation on Wed 3rd of May at 8 PM:what are the AWARDS?What are the new updated Category criteria?What is the timeline for entry, live streams and winner announcements?GIVEAWAY - win prizes by answering the quiz on the li …

By Bjorn Jacobsen, April 2023I met Billy during the Master Class of the 2022 Blade Symposium. What a guy! Going with Jamie and Pierre to the master class I knew it would be fun already, but Billy certainly added to the group laughs! From what I picked up during the week, I knew Billy had quite the story. Working through a difficult period of his life and using his passion for making to find both new energy, and new people to call friends. We are grateful to Billy for wanting to share his s …

Fitting a stick tang blade into a handle block or front bolster piece is a challenging part of knife making. If you make the tang slit too wide, you will get a gap between the blade and the front section of the handle. One of the first things makers often check when picking up a hand-made knife is the blade to handle fit-up. A "broach" or tang hole saw is the tool used to help in this process; it is basically a saw blade with a narrow tip small enough to get into drilled holes that are …

ApexUltra is a carbon "super steel" developed specifically for kitchen knives.Tests results are nothing short of impressive:High hardnessAmazing edge retentionHigh toughnessWhat makes the steel so special is the high purity, the low amount of impurities gives less chance for crack formation at a very thin and hard edge as well as the the homogeneity of the steel, meaning it is uniform or very consistent in composition.The result is a steel that -after tempering - is harder than most other steels …

By Bjorn Jacobsen, March 2023Keisha is a maker from Queensland who over the last couple of years is really starting to make a name for herself. Clean, good looking lines in her knives paired with quality Australian hardwood handles is making customers take notice that what is coming out of Dark Horse Forge is quality stuff. This coming weekend, Keisha is having a table at the Queensland Knife Show in Ipswich - her first ever solo show - so stop by and check our the knives if attending the s …