For 2025, every maker began the project with the same starting point:
A template of Benjamin Kamon’s high chef knife design. From there, the rest was up to them. They chose the steel, selected handle materials that best suited the design, and refined the grind style to match their personal approach to knifemaking. What follows is a collection of knives that share a common origin yet tell twenty two completely different stories, each one shaped by the maker who created it.
Benjamin Kamon: Kamon Knives
Self employed since 2019, Ben combines his knowledge as a former machinist with years of practice at the forge to produce kitchen knives that not only look great, but are built with performance in mind. His High Chef model was chosen as the theme for our 2025 charity project.
Mershad Taghinejad: Shir Knives
Mershad approaches every build with meticulous attention to detail. Dialing in grinds, fit and finish, and overall balance so that each knife feels as good as it looks. Each piece reflects a steady constant drive to refine his process, pushing for cleaner execution and better performance with every knife that leaves his bench.
Jeroen Knippenberg: Knippenberg Knives
As a former mechanical engineer Jeroen brings a deep, technical understanding of steel and heat treatment to every blade. His work ranges from showpiece Artisan builds to his newly streamlined Performance Line. Jeroen’s knives have quickly earned him international attention.
Christoph Feichtl: Kalderum Klingenkunst
From kitchen cutlery and EDCs to hunting knives, liner locks, and even swords. If it has an edge, Christoph makes it and he does it well. His work has won him countless awards at various knife shows and it shows in each one of his knives.
Gabe Fletcher: Anchorage Forge
This Alaska based brewmaster and bladesmith has dialed in the art of Damascus pattern manipulation. Gabe has worked alongside some of the top U.S. smiths, absorbing a little from each along the way and translating it into a style that’s unmistakably his. The result is work that’s earned major recognition at knife shows, spanning from Atlanta all the way to Austria.
Albert Anglberger & Andreas Fellner: Salzburger Messerschmiede
This two man show, located just outside of Salzburg, runs one of the biggest forging shops in Europe. Albert and Andi do it all from restoring turn of the century power hammers to making high end chef knives for some of Austria’s top Michelin star cooks.
Fingal Ferguson: Fingal Ferguson Knives
With a love for good food and years of running a fifth generation farm in Ireland, Fingal makes knives designed to bring family and friends together around the table. His blades balance clean performance with an inviting, handmade feel, while using some of the best steels on the market. His signature handle shape is instantly recognizable, comfortable in the hand and made for long prep sessions.
Derrick Wulf: Wulf Knives
Born in the USA, Derrick has been a Journeyman Smith with the ABS since 2013 and a member of the MAK (Messerarbeitskreis Olching), where he currently lives in Bavaria, Germany. He may be a man of few words, but his work speaks for itself. From classic American style bowies to performance driven kitchen knives, his work has been featured in countless knife magazines and is highly sought after by collectors and knife enthusiasts around the world.
Neil Willow: Willow Forge Customs
Working from North Cambridgeshire in the UK, Neil brings a fine arts background and a sculptor’s eye for proportion, form, and material pairing to every blade he makes. The result is kitchen knives that feel purposeful and refined, with meticulous fit and finish and the kind of detail work that’s earned him a strong following.
Martin Huber: Messerschmied Huber
Martin Huber has been making knives full time since 2016, carrying on a blacksmithing tradition that runs in his family. He shares his methods and day to day work on his YouTube channel, and teaches the process hands on through classes available at his shop. Beyond the forge, Martin is also the driving force behind Knife Show Austria, where the 2026 charity project will be showcased. You can find his knives at select dealers across Europe and the U.S.
Tobias Hangler: Messerschmiede Hangler
As a co founder of the highly popular steel Apex Ultra, and team member of the gold vein project. Tobias approaches knifemaking with a distinctly scientific mindset. He’s constantly researching new ways to improve and streamline his process, especially when it comes to heat treatment. That drive to optimize also led him to develop Scale-X, a product designed to reduce scaling and decarburization during heat treatment.
Geoff Feder: Feder Knives
With a long background in studio art and fabrication, Geoff’s knives are a direct reflection of his artistic talent. His bold, high contrast color combinations create visually distinctive handles that are instantly recognizable. Studies in culinary school and years in the restaurant industry also inform his work, resulting in knives that are truly made for the kitchen. Beyond the bench, Geoff is active in the community as an instructor at the Center for Metal Arts and as a co-host of Knife Talk and The Full Blast podcasts.
Samuel Dunn: Dunn Bladeworks
Working from a small workshop in Glengarriff, County Cork, Sam specializes in high end kitchen knives in both stainless and high carbon steels. Built to make cooking feel anything but mediocre, his knives pair clean, performance driven geometry with standout handle work, and they’ve earned a strong following both at home and abroad.
Tobias Heldqvist: Heldqvist smide
Working out of a Swedish forge built in the late 1800s, Tobias draws on years of metal fabrication and architectural restoration, along with time training in Japan. The result is a style that blends Japanese inspired profiles and techniques into every knife he makes. Forged close to profile, his blades are finished with everything from deep kurouchi texture to crisp, refined kasumi polishes.
Oliver Märtens: OEL Kitchen Knives
A former tool mechanic with years of metalwork and fabrication experience, Oliver started forging knives in 2015. His work is known for simple, elegant lines and function first utility, with each piece carefully thought out and flawlessly executed right down to his trademark hidden tang handle construction that is a true work of art in itself.
Timo Verschuren: Hardent Knives
This young Dutch maker focuses on kitchen knives that are high performance yet still approachable, with a strong emphasis on thin, refined geometry and distal taper. Timo has been making knives since 2017, using everything from monosteel to his own wootz steel in his custom work. He also offers lines like his Werkgericht knives, built as durable, budget friendly performers.
Erik Gullikson: Gullikson Knives
Erik Gullikson is an Irish bladesmith based in Kinsale, He forges culinary knives that balance hard kitchen performance with strong visual storytelling. Drawing on a long background in music and creative work, he approaches each knife like a composed piece, blending bold textures, clean bevels, and designs inspired by nature, history, and personal experiences.
Antoine Kniamen: Adonis Forge
With an almost obsessive attention to detail, Antoine’s work sits right between art and hard kitchen performance, from dark, texture-rich kurouchi blades to ultra clean, refined finishes, often built in sanmai, gomai, and Damascus. With bold profile design and meticulous execution, Antoine’s knives feel as striking in the hand as they look on the cutting board.
Simon Maillet: Simon chef knife
Based near Nantes, France, Simon builds Japanese inspired kitchen tools with a practical, wabi-sabi influenced mindset, keeping the look minimal while putting performance first. Simon grinds on a water wheel and finishes on stones, resulting in flat, consistent bevels that are easy to maintain and ready for everyday use.
Jonas Johnsson: isasmedjan
Known for high end honyaki chef knives and rustic, distinctly Scandinavian builds, Jonas often uses Damascus and wrought iron cladding paired with local materials like birch bark and deer antler. His path into knifemaking took off after a blacksmithing course at Ryfors Bruk with renowned smith Gustav Thane, and he has been running Isasmedjan full time since early 2019.
Tim Kögler: Spira Knives
Tim Kögler is the German maker behind Spira Knives, building hand forged kitchen knives one at a time. His focus is clean geometry, using steels ranging from monosteel to hand forged Damascus. Tim is one of the original co founders of Klingen für Gutes (Blades for Good) and also co hosts the “63 HRC” podcast with Ben Halbauer, helping connect and grow the German speaking knife community.
Ben Halbauer: Alb Knives
One of the original co founders of Klingen für Gutes (Blades for Good), Ben is known for his signature “coffin” handles across both his kitchen and EDC knife models. In the EDC world he’s especially recognized for models like the Toe Pincher and the Coffin Nail, a design that helped earn him the nickname “the Coffin Maker.” Beyond the bench, Ben also co hosts the “63 HRC” podcast with Tim Kögler.