Custom blades · Restoration · Small-run metalwork — Pittsboro, NC

Ash &
Temper

Knives forged slowly, in small numbers, from steel we can name. Every blade leaves with its drawing.

Start an estimate See the work

Fig. 01 — a billet of 1084, cooling on the anvil. Move across it; steel remembers heat.

BILLET SURFACE — 2,050 °F

01 · Selected work

Six blades from the spring rack

Every drawing below is to proportion, annotated the way the shop keeps records. Open a plate for the full spec sheet.

02 · Process

Five steps, in the order the steel demands

01 / 05 — Forge

Forge

The bar goes into the coal forge near 2,050 °F and comes out longer, thinner, and honest. Ten to fourteen heats to draw a blade — the steel tells you when.

Grind

A 60-grit belt sets the bevel; a 400-grit finish decides how the patina will land. The grinder only removes — what remains is the knife.

Quench

Foil-wrapped, soaked at 1,475 °F, pulled into fast oil. The difference between a blade and a piece of metal is about four seconds.

Temper

Two hours at 375 °F, twice. Hardness you can trust at 59 HRC — hard enough to hold an edge, soft enough to forgive a drop.

Handle

Walnut scales drilled, pinned with brass, bedded in epoxy. Sanded to 400 grit, oiled, and the first edge put on by hand.

03 · Estimator

Price a blade before you write to us

Honest numbers, computed the same way we quote at the bench. The band is real — steel and heat-treat keep their own opinions.

Blade length14 in

8 in12162024 in

Steel 1084 high-carbon× 1.00 The workhorse. Takes a keen edge and patinas dark and even. 80CrV2× 1.15 Tougher alloy for hard use — camp and field blades. O1 tool steel× 1.38 Precision ground stock. Uniform, exacting, slower to finish.

Handle Stabilized walnut+ $0 Piedmont black walnut, vacuum-stabilized, brass pins. Black canvas micarta+ $45 Grips when wet, outlives us all. Corby bolts. Red stag antler+ $90 Sourced from a friend’s farm, nickel-silver pinned.

Engraving lines0 lines — $0

010203040

Rush the queue× 1.35 on price — first heat this week, same steel.

How we quote

quote = ( forge_fee + ( length_in − 8 ) × per_inch ) × steel_mult
        + handle_add + lines × engraving_rate

band   low = quote × 0.90   ·   high = quote × 1.22
lead   5 wk + 0.4 × ( length_in − 8 ) + 1 wk per 8 lines
rush   quote × 1.35  ·  lead × 0.60

forge_fee  $320        per_inch   $18 / in over 8
engraving $9 / line    steel      ×1.00 / ×1.15 / ×1.38
handle     +$0 / +$45 / +$90

The band covers heat-treat variance and steel availability. We confirm the final number before the first heat, and it doesn’t move after that.

04 · Journal

Notes from the forge

Entry 01

Filed February 2025

4 min read

On Patina

Stainless steel is a denial of time. Carbon steel is an agreement with it. A blade of 1084 leaves here bright, and from the first onion it meets, the steel begins to keep records — grays, blues, the bruised purple of a wet night in a leather sheath.

“A patina is a ledger. Every meal, every rain, every pocket it rode in — written there.”

We force the first page: a warm vinegar bath, an even gray, so the later writing has lines to sit on. After that the blade belongs to its kitchen. Some owners wax it back to shine each spring. Most stop, once they see where the work happens.

Care is simple. Wash it. Dry it. A finger of oil before it goes in the drawer. Don’t grieve the marks — a knife that looks unused usually is.

Entry 02

Filed April 2025

3 min read

What the Grinder Takes

Forging moves steel but never loses it; the bar that goes into the fire comes out the other side, rearranged. The grinder is different. It is the only honest aristocrat in the shop: it takes, and gives nothing back.

“The grinder only removes. What’s left standing is the knife you meant.”

There is a moment — scribe line lit blue, belt humming at two thousand feet a minute — when the blade stops being a sketch. Everything on the wrong side of the line goes into the dust collector, and no heat will bring it back.

Restoration is the same promise in reverse. Rust is just steel that forgot itself; we grind back to the line the first smith intended, and stop there. Knowing where to stop is the whole trade.

05 · Contact

Start a conversation

Commissions are open through the summer. We take six blades a month so each one gets the fire time it deserves.

Tell us what you cut, how you hold it, and what steel you’ve loved before — the rest we work out together, usually over email and once in person.

Studio: Pittsboro, NC — by appointment
Hours: Tue–Sat, 9–5
Write: forge@ashandtemper.com