Finding Uniquely Local, Yorkshire based gifts and experiences, has made gift buying a real pleasure. We have just enjoyed a weekend knife making experience at Environmental Arts, a forge based in Malton, just under an hour from home yet without the carefully curated list of possibilities managed by Uniquely Local we might never have found it.
The experience was bought to celebrate my husband’s birthday. I struggle to find gifts for him but on coming across Uniquely Local that problem is solved for years to come. Rachel, the person behind the website, is extremely attentive and knowledgeable. Questions are answered promptly and the interface between Uniquely Local and Environmental Arts was managed exceptionally well. I am sure that this will be the same whichever of the experiences is chosen.
An email from Piers Edsall set out the basics of what we would be doing. That was printed off and given to my husband on his birthday. We were extremely lucky in getting places for the weekend just after the birthday so we didn’t have long to wait.
Getting up and out of the house for a 9 o’clock start in Malton was something of a challenge, husband is retired and I work from home so early mornings are rare; nevertheless we arrived in good time. Piers had lit the forge so despite the cold winter weather we were soon warmed up. Four of us had enrolled for the weekend and it was a pleasure to get to know the other participants as our knives began to take shape. Slowly. Very slowly in my case.
At first it seemed that we were on an impossible mission. We were each given a piece of rough carbon steel like the one in the photo as our starting point.
We were warned that hard work was required, our first task was to decide whether we wanted to create a chef’s knife or a craft knife, we each opted for the former. There were points in that first day when I regretted not opting to try for a doll’s house miniature knife!
We hammered, then we hammered some more. In rotation our “knives” went into the furnace as each participant took their turn at the anvil. Hammering was limited to bursts of perhaps a minute or two before the metal cooled too much to be worked. My piece went back into the fire and I was able to watch the other three participants take their turn at hitting those little rods of steel with all of their strength.
Piers is an excellent teacher, he gave us factual information about the properties of metal as they became relevant. Our progress was carefully monitored and we were each guided to ensure that our work was as productive as possible. I certainly don’t have the strength of a man thirty years my junior and Piers kindly helped me out on a couple of occasions, taking my turn so that my knife “grew” at approximately the same rate as the others. This was done with elegance, I was never made to feel inadequate or humiliated.
Drinks and lunch were included in our programme and the food provided each day was exceptionally good. A warm bowl of tagine provided by The Cook’s Place at Malton and delivered to us at the workshop was much enjoyed. I don’t often eat lunch but the energy required to persuade my chunk of metal to take on the profile of a knife meant that I felt no guilt about the calories. Lunch each day was delicious.
By the end of the afternoon we had each managed to create a vaguely knife like object. Discussion now focused on what we wanted the finished knife to look like, in particular would it have a squared off end or a point. As we have a set of good kitchen knives with pointed tips we both opted to go for a blunter design.
Exhausted but satisfied, we left the workshop at 5 and headed home. With no energy for cooking we called for fish and chips on the way back and just managed to stay awake long enough to eat them
Sunday, day two, saw us back at the forge for a 10 o’clock start. Our knife like objects were ready for filing to perfect the spine, then removal of scale from the surfaces to reveal the shiny metal in all of it’s splendour. Once again Piers was ever present, always ready to guide, explain, advise. The workshop is very full of all manner of objects but Piers seems always able to produce just the right tool at the moment it is needed. More complex procedures were explained to us as individuals as the need arose. No question was too trivial, every demonstration was carefully explained. Despite the flames and the multitude of tools we handled we all left the workshop with the same number of fingers that we started with.
At the start of the morning we were each presented with a chunk of beautiful hardwood that had a hole running through the centre. Our future knife handles!
At this point it seemed that we were really making progress. Maybe, just possibly, we might each produce a useable knife to be proud of.
Fitting the handles was fun! Our knives were heated to red hot in the forge while our handles were put into a vice. Once red hot, we gripped our knives in tongs one last time, driving the tang into the hardwood so that it burned it’s exact shape through the wood. A better fitting handle could not be made. The knife was pulled out of the handle to allow any final correction to the metal.
As the morning came to an end we each held knife like objects that sparkled silver. Hardening the metal was the next stage: this involved the knives going back into the forge; then doused in a barrel of linseed oil; then heated again to temper the metal in a kiln before finally cooling naturally. It was so sad to see my nice, mostly shiny knife, turn black once again. Without hardening the knives would have been of little use so it was just a question of more cleaning once the process was at an end.
While our knives were in the kiln we were advised to “whittle” our handles into whatever shape we wanted. With chisels, a drawknife and the like we rounded off the corners and then perfected the surface with increasingly fine sanding paper.
Cutting edges were perfected and it was clear that our lumps of carbon steel rod really had been transformed into knives.
Handles were refitted so that the very tip of the tang was visible, this was hammered to flatten the end into a rivet shape that prevents the handle from ever sliding off. A last coat of linseed oil was applied and our knives were wrapped in paper ready for the journey home.
Uniquely Local’s organisation of the knife making weekend with Environmental Arts provided us with a fantastic two days. Piers Edsall is a natural teacher, able to manage the process so that each participant keeps pace with the rest. Technical information was provided at relevant points in the process in an easy to understand manner.
Perhaps above all, Piers is an Artist, his own work includes scenery and props for stage and screen and odd bits and pieces tell the stories of numerous commissions that have passed through the workshop. We learned about casting heads and about creating Star Wars figures from reconstituted stone, specially formulated so that moss grows on the surface.
There are axe and sword making courses as well as shorter introductions to blacksmithing, I can highly recommend any of these options, arranged with the assistance of Uniquely Local.
This review was kindly provided by a Uniquely Local customer – Diana Benson. Her and her husband completed the Knife Making Course with Piers in February 2026