Ben, Barry, Konstantinos and Alex Paul at Nouko knives in Bristol

Having spent a year forging blades before heading to university, I’ve always had a deep fascination with steel. Recently, Ben Barry and I decided to treat ourselves to a kitchen knife-making course. We wanted to explore something new while building on the knowledge we had gained from our experience with fencing blades.

Though this process was far more hands-on than we were used to, many of the steps mirrored those involved in crafting a fencing blade. We attended a two-day kitchen knife-making course at Nouko Knives, and it turned out to be an unforgettable experience.

What drew us to this course was that Nouko is the only place in the UK where you can forge a kitchen knife using two different types of steel. The end result? A knife with a super-hard core that retains sharpness for a long time, encased in a beautiful, softer Damascus cladding. The precision and craftsmanship behind this process create something that’s not only aesthetically stunning but also incredibly functional.

At our company, we strive to combine the best materials and processes in everything we do. In some ways, this experience served as a bit of R&D for our future product lines. I won’t go into all the details, as the two-day course involved many intricate steps that you can read more about on their website. But under the expert guidance of Konstantinos, we transformed a simple piece of steel into a stunning finished product that I now use in my kitchen every day. The joy of using something I made myself, with such outstanding quality, is hard to describe.

I can’t take all the credit for the finished knife, though—Konstantinos’ skill as a teacher played a huge role in ensuring we crafted something this good.

What’s particularly exciting is that this experience has sparked ideas for how we might integrate some of these traditional methods or finishes into our blade designs. We’re now considering ways to incorporate the aesthetic appeal of handcrafted knives into our own products.

If you’re interested in making your own kitchen knife, I couldn’t recommend Konstantinos and his course enough. And if you can’t make it to a course, you can still buy his amazing knives directly from his website or follow him on Instagram.