For 2026, every maker began with a randomly selected pattern from Damasteel's collection. They chose flat bar for stock removal or round bar for forging. After the steel was chosen, we sent each maker their steel plus a block of stabilized curly Claro walnut, generously donated by Fabian from Scherl Firearts
All 20 knives were displayed at Knifeshow Austria. Raffle tickets were sold online and at the show, with 100% of proceeds going to kinderlachen.de, a charity dedicated to helping children in need.
All your questions about how the raffle works are answered here!
Ben Kamon
Benjamin Kamon of Kamon Knives is an Austria based bladesmith specializing in high performance kitchen knives. Trained as both a machinist and blacksmith, he's known for his signature detachable handle systems, water cooled grinding, and thin, obsessively refined blade geometry. Since founding Kamon Knives in 2019, his work has ranged from clean production pieces to elaborate one off commissions with complex layered steel and unique handle materials.
Ben is also a new member of The Edge of Hope team, bringing valuable insight and experience to this year's charity project.
Tobias Hangler
Tobias Hangler of Messerschmiede Hangler is an Austria based bladesmith and metallurgist specializing in hand forged chef's knives. Trained in blacksmithing since 2006 and holding a degree in metallurgy, he combines traditional forging with stock removal and specialized heat treatments like fluidized sand bed processes and marquenching. He also helped develop ApexUltra, and cofounded GoldVein, a project pairing gold and steel in luxury knife designs.
Tobias has supported The Edge of Hope since the very start in 2024, and his continued involvement has been a big part of the project's growth.
Antoine Kniamen
Antoine Kniamen of Adonis Forged Arts is a France based bladesmith working solo out of Annecy, handling every knife from raw steel to finished edge. With an almost obsessive attention to detail, his work sits right between art and hard kitchen performance, ranging from dark, texture rich kurouchi blades to ultra clean, refined finishes built in sanmai, gomai, and damascus. He's known for integral handle constructions in his Hephaestus series, industrial inspired touches like I beam handle construction, and his newest design, a hot riveted handle built with custom titanium rivets.
This is Antoine's second year working with us, and we're excited to see what he's donating this year.
Joshua Prince
Joshua Prince of Princeworks Forge is a Rhode Island based bladesmith blending old school forging with his own welding techniques to create sculptural, one of a kind knives with a natural, organic flow. Raised by two artist parents and surrounded by carving tools and clay from childhood, that eye for art carries straight into his work, especially in how he uses negative space in his damascus patterns to build visual depth and movement. He built his forge in 2016 and has been developing his own damascus patterns and techniques ever since, and he's also a member of the American Bladesmith Society who teaches knifemaking to other smiths.
This is Josh's first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we're excited to welcome him to the lineup.
Jeroen Knippenberg
Jeroen Knippenberg of Knippenberg Knives is a Netherlands based bladesmith. Before going full time in September 2025, Jeroen spent years working as a process engineer at a heat and surface treatment facility, and that technical background carries straight into his knifemaking, where he handles every step himself, from design through heat treatment, grinding, and handle work. He's known for intricate mosaic damascus and Japanese influenced integral builds with decorative mokume gane elements. To make his work accessible to a wider range of customers, he also offers a more affordable Performance Line built with monosteel and composite materials.
This is Jeroen's second year working with us, and we're glad to have him back for another year of The Edge of Hope.
Simon Krichbaum
Simon Krichbaum of Krichbaum Knives is an Austria based bladesmith working out of Seewalchen. He trained for three years under fellow Austrian bladesmith Martin Huber before developing his own style, known for stone finished, low bevel kitchen knives with distinctive octagonal takedown handles in woods like African Blackwood, Gidgee, and Thuya Burl. Working mainly in Apex Ultra across SanMai and GoMai constructions, he's also part of Modern Cooking's MCx Design Studio.
This is Simon's first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we're excited to welcome him to the lineup.
Fingal Ferguson
Fingal Ferguson of Fingal Ferguson Knives is a fifth generation farmer from West Cork, Ireland, running his knifemaking alongside cheese and charcuterie production on the family farm. He learned the craft from neighbor Rory Conner, widely regarded as the pioneer of Irish bladesmithing, and has been making knives professionally for about 15 years, working on form and function first before refining the aesthetics. Known for pairing specialist knife steels with striking materials like bog oak, mammoth ivory, fossils, and paua shell, he's collaborated with fellow makers including Tobias Hangler and Benjamin Kamon, organizes the West Cork Hammer In gathering, and mentors a growing list of emerging Irish knifemakers.
This is Fingal's second year working with us, and we're glad to have him back for another epic year of The Edge of Hope.
Jonas Johnsson
Jonas Johnsson of Isasmedjan is a Sweden based bladesmith who trained under Gustav Thane, one of Sweden's most renowned blacksmiths, before going full time in 2019, and has since developed one of Europe's broadest forging vocabularies, spanning honyaki, san mai and go mai, wrought iron cladding, and mizu honyaki mirror polish. He's known for stacked birchbark handles harvested from the woods around his workshop, paired with materials like bog oak, oosik, and eucalyptus burl, and is a founding member of the Birch and Bevel brand who has collaborated with Naohito Myojin, Benjamin Kamon, and Simon Krichbaum, two other makers already in this year's lineup.
This is Jonas's second year working with us, and we're glad to have him back for this year's The Edge of Hope project.
Alfredo Faccipieri
Alfredo Faccipieri of Faccipieri Coltelli Artigianali is an Italy based bladesmith working out of Riese Pio X. His interest in knives goes back to early childhood, but the real turning point came about 15 years ago, seeing a friend's knife made from an old industrial saw blade and coffin wood, something he's called one of the most beautiful objects he'd ever seen. He now builds kitchen knives meant for daily use in professional kitchens rather than display, treating heat treatment, geometry, and ergonomics as the priority before anything else. His blades feature mirror polished finishes, working mainly in Damasteel and Magnacut paired with stabilized woods like maple burl and sycamore, and in 2021 he became the first Italian knifemaker invited to the Damasteel Chef Invitational.
This is Alfredo's first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we're excited to welcome him to the 2026 lineup.
Martin Huber
Martin Huber of Huber Knives is an Austria based bladesmith working out of Steyr, where he grew up in a family of metalworkers. Trained formally as an artist blacksmith over four years, he was first introduced to damascus steel during that training, and opened his own shop in 2016. He now forges both kitchen and outdoor knives, along with the occasional axe, working alongside an assistant and known for house made steels, mosaic damascus, and multi layer constructions ranging from nine layers to over fourteen hundred, paired with natural wood handles in acacia, walnut, oak, and mammoth ivory. Beyond the shop, he's the same Martin Huber who trained fellow maker Simon Krichbaum, runs the Martin Huber Knives YouTube channel mixing educational and casual content, and organizes Knifeshow Austria itself.
Martin has been with The Edge of Hope since the very start, and his support has been a big part of the project's growth.
Fredrik Spåre
Fredrik Spåre of Spåre Knives is a Sweden based bladesmith working out of a forge near Örebro. He first learned to make knives through a weekend course with his father back in the 1990s, and what started as a bonding activity grew into a lifelong hobby, crafting kitchen and hunting knives for friends and family before eventually becoming his full time craft. He works largely by feel rather than fixed measurements, relying on his eye and fingertip sense through both sharpening and shaping. In house, he forges his own damascus and laminated steel alongside Swedish sources, often reaching for Damasteel's Jörmungandr pattern, this year's main sponsor for The Edge of Hope, and builds bread swords and chef's knives known for running notably hard at 63 to 66 HRC. He also teaches chef's knife making classes.
This is Fredrik's first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we're excited to welcome him to the lineup.
Sam Dunn
Sam Dunn of Dunn Bladeworks is an Ireland based knifemaker working out of Glengarriff, County Cork. Coming from a background in construction and welding, he discovered knifemaking through a YouTube video and taught himself the craft with early guidance from fellow West Cork knifemaker Rory Connor, the same mentor behind Fingal Ferguson. He specializes in handcrafted kitchen knives in both stainless and high carbon steel, with handles often in stabilized wood, micarta, and synthetics, built for professional chefs and home cooks alike. In 2020 he made a deliberate choice to slow down and focus on the highest quality and detail possible, and now works from a waiting list with roughly an 18 month lead time. His work is guided by a simple belief: a kitchen knife gets used every single day, so it should never be a mediocre experience.
This is Sam's second year supporting The Edge of Hope, and we're glad to have him back.
Tomer Botner
Tomer Botner of Florentine Kitchen Knives is a Barcelona based knifemaker, originally from Tel Aviv, who trained in industrial design before working as a product and fashion designer and in restaurant management. He founded Florentine Kitchen Knives in 2012, launching it through a crowdfunding campaign after his design thesis that raised enough to produce his first 100 knives, and later relocated the workshop to Barcelona's Poblenou district. Focused entirely on stock removal kitchen knives, he's known for a modified stacking technique on his handles, working across woods, leathers, micarta, brass, and steel, with a Mediterranean influenced aesthetic shaped by his own background.
This is Florentine Kitchen Knives first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we're excited to welcome him to the lineup.
Christoph Feichtl
Christoph Feichtl of Kalderum Klingenkunst is an Austria based bladesmith working from a farmstead in Rittschein near Fürstenfeld, after ten years forging as the castle blacksmith at nearby Riegersburg. He rebranded the workshop as Kalderum, a name drawn from the Styrian region's volcanic caldera, and now makes everything from kitchen cutlery and EDCs to hunting knives, liner locks, and swords, working in damascus, laminated Vanadis steel, and stainless, paired with materials like desert ironwood, camel bone, and mammoth molar. His work has won him countless awards at knife shows, and alongside his own shop he runs blacksmithing courses teaching others to forge knives, swords, Pans, and axes from scratch.
Christoph has been with The Edge of Hope since the very start, and his support has been a big part of the project's growth.
Toma Fenes
Toma Fenes is a twenty two year old, Romania based bladesmith working out of a small shop near Paltin Monastery in the country's north. He grew up in his father's woodworking studio building wooden swords and shields as a child, and at twelve began several years of fencing training under one of Romania's last master sword fighters. He began forging metal at fifteen and now works with hand tools, traditional methods, and a homemade furnace, favoring mono steel construction in 26C3 with honyaki hardening over complex laminates. His knives are built around straight, flowing lines and function first design, finished with hand forged mokume details and distinctive hamons, with every piece made entirely by hand in very limited numbers. His first kitchen knife was bought by a local chef, whose recommendation to colleagues brought him his earliest orders, and his influences run from Tolkien and history to architecture and cooking.
This is Toma's first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we're excited to welcome him to the lineup.
Gabe Fletcher
Gabe Fletcher of Anchorage Forge is an Alaska based bladesmith working out of a shop built right into his own brewery in Anchorage. Originally from Vermont, he grew up hunting, fishing, and processing his own game, and spent years running Anchorage Brewing Company, a craft brewery he founded in 2010. His sister introduced him to knifemaker Neil Kamimura, and a trip to Hawaii to learn from him turned into training under Mareko Maumasi and Salem Straub, with Maumasi becoming his main mentor in damascus theory. He forged his first knife, a gift for his wife, at Christmas 2021 and launched Anchorage Forge a few months later, building a reputation on bold, integral hand forged chef's knives with Gradient Pattern Damascus and handle materials like curly koa, curly mango, and bog oak. Along the way he's worked alongside some of the world's top custom knife makers, and he's even brewed beers named after the knifemakers he admires most.
This is Gabe's second year working with us, and we're glad to have him back for another year of The Edge of Hope.
Mershad Taghinejad
Mershad Taghinejad of Shir Knives is a Germany based knifemaker whose work leans toward performance first geometry and profile, drawing early inspiration from Japanese knifemaking traditions before evolving into a style of his own. He works mainly in tool steels like 1.2562 and is known for his S grinds, with reviewers calling his fit and finish some of the best they've experienced. Every knife is 100 percent handmade, built with meticulous attention to grinds, fit, and balance, and a constant drive to refine his process with each piece that leaves his bench.
Mershad has been with The Edge of Hope since the very beginning, and beyond being one of our makers, he also serves as our Charity Coordinator, meeting regularly with Kinderlachen to keep the project aligned on details and timelines, and giving feedback on the raffle from both a donor's and a maker's perspective.
Dan Bidinger
Dan Bidinger of Bidinger Knives is a Washington based knifemaker working out of Sequim, after growing up in Alaska and later spending more than a decade in Dubai before returning to the US in 2018 to set up shop. His early appreciation for well made tools came from hands on work in construction and high access rigging, and he's largely self taught, though he's drawn insight from some of the field's most respected artisans over the past half decade. He's best known for the B grind, a compound geometry he developed to improve food release and reduce friction through the cut, working mainly in mono steel construction with AEB L and CPM 3V, paired with materials like koa, micarta, and ironwood. Each knife is made by hand in extremely limited numbers, admired by fellow culinary knifemakers for clean designs, refined geometry, and outstanding fit and finish.
This is Dan's first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we're excited to welcome him to the lineup.
Karol Karyś
Karol Karyś of Made by Karyś is a Poland based knifemaker working out of Kraków, and a graduate of Industrial Design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. He came to bladesmithing through bushcraft, and what started as a personal fascination with knives as objects grew into a serious, design driven practice shaped by that formal training. His work draws openly on the brutalist architecture of Kraków and the wider post war European landscape, tracing textures from facades and stairwells in his city and translating them into cleanly resolved, architectural surface treatments rather than decorative pattern welding. He works mostly in mono steel, reaching for San Mai construction on more elaborate pieces, cladding Apex Ultra in wrought iron or copper, and treats edge geometry and balance as part of the same design composition as the knife's form. His individuality and technical control have already made him one to watch in the maker led, design focused side of the kitchen knife world.
This is Karol's first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we're excited to welcome him to the lineup.
Jannis Scholz
Jannis Scholz of Xerxes Knives is a Germany based bladesmith working out of Friesoythe. He originally studied history and economic education before training as an industrial mechanic, and picked up the nickname Xerxes from a school presentation on the ancient ruler, which stuck and became his workshop’s name. He taught himself forging from the ground up, studying the form and function of Japanese kitchen knives along the way. His range includes fixed blade knives inspired by Nordic designs, replicas of historical blades, and more recently, kitchen knives, with new pieces released in small batches once a month through his own shop. Beyond his own knives, he also runs Xerxes Knives as a supply shop for fellow makers, selling knife steel, raw smelting ore, high temperature furnace materials, and hardening products.
This is Jannis’s first year donating with The Edge of Hope, and we’re excited to welcome him to the lineup.