Materials
All my knives are made in my workshop by myself from start to finish with an obsession for traditional techniques like san-maï, warikomi, ni-maï and pattern welded steel. My main focus is forging, which adds versatility and greatly minimises waste.
Blade cladding material or Jiagane : I re-use unwanted material that I can forge down to flat bar and process as cladding. When a blade is stamped with the trash knife touch mark, most of the material (up to 75%) are reused.
My main cladding material is wrought iron. It's an alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions.
Soft iron, with a minimum Fe content of 99.85%, without the addition of alloy elements.
Soft steel XC15 with 0.15% carbon it's a tougher material with a better flexibility
Pattern welded steel or "modern Damascus" is made from several types of steel and/or iron slices welded together to form a billet.
Blade core material or hagane : Most of my knives are carbon steel based. I use mainly low alloyed high carbon steel but I also offer 2 tungsten steel for better wear resistance.
Shirogami 1 from Hitachi / Japan
115CrV3 Silver steel from France / UK
Handle material : All my handle are made using local, untreated, unstabilised wood, From Sheffield, UK or France. I choose to work with European wood because they offer a wide range of color, grain while being strong and rot resistant. They are sustainably cut and air dried in my workshop. I mainly use Bog oak, Burl Elm, English Oak, Burl Walnut and Box wood but I may have more species available.
Saya material : My standard saya or wooden sheath are hand carved to fit only your blade. A pin is provided to secure the knife or to release it. They are made from Tulip wood (Liriodendron tulipifera) or Lime (Tillia cordata) which is a soft, straight grain, moisture resistant and contains no resin that can react with carbon steel.