#HTE

The Self-Taught Knife Makers of Blenheim Forge

In today’s news: your how-to video binges can pay off. (At least if you also put the IRL time in and get a nice camera.) For the founders of London’s Blenheim Forge, an interest in traditional Japanese metalworking didn’t need a travel budget, a traditional guild, or a craftsman’s guidance. They just went to YouTube. 

Reading their blurb on Nowness, my eyebrows lifted at the slightly boastful claim that they turn out fine knives “without ever having enrolled in a steelmaking class.” But DIY knife making is a tried and true field. It’s not an overstatement that anyone with a hot enough furnace and a bangable surface can make a functional knife. The difference in quality isn’t simply in depth of metallurgical knowledge, it also comes down to awareness of pragmatic application and attention to detail. 

And in that regard, it looks like the three Blenheim workers have done their googling well. Their Japanese style kitchen knives use several time-tested metal types, known for a blend of hardness and ability to hold a fine edge, and intended for serious kitchen use. Between Blue Paper steel and modern Damascus, their blades follow conventional wisdom for what chefs need in a tool and like to look at.  

But as straightforward as they seem, and as lovely as their videos are, would you trust a knife made by guys who started in 2012?

As a resident of one of the nation’s hottest hotspots for young self-described artisans, I can get inured to their slow-crafted earnestness and under-35 charm. But stories of self-taught traditional skills remain intriguing, in part because they remind us of finished objects we take for granted. 

Have you taught yourself any skilled crafts using YouTube?