Iron Grove Tool Company allows you to forge your own knife, or buy beautiful, custom made cutlery!
DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — I have never been in awe of a knife, but the cutlery Daniel Collier makes at Iron Grove Tool Company will blow you away. “We ship about 1000 knives a year, right now,” says Collier. Most of his clientele is in the restaurant or culinary business, but more and more average people are getting to know his work.
Collier says, “I got into knife making to impress my wife.” She was his girlfriend then, a chef in an Austin restaurant. It must have worked, they’ve been married now for 13 years. One day his wife put a post on social media, about the Damascus steel knives he made for her.
The next morning Collier said he had at least a hundred requests for his work. “I knew at that point I either had to go into this full time, or start saying no!” There are very few things Collier has since said no to trying to make. And his custom made, signature knives are beautiful.
Some sell for more than $1100, steak knives run about $145 each. Iron grove Tool Company also makes carving knives, filet knives, meat cleavers, pizza cutters, skillets , almost anything you can use in the kitchen Collier says they will give a go at making it. But his Damascus, signature pieces are his works of art.
Perhaps the best part of Iron Grove Tool Company is they have classes where they will teach and allow you to make your own knife, however you want. I had never tried to forge anything, so I thought it would be best if I kept things simple. We started with a 4″ piece of round carbon steel.
Iron Grove’s propane fueled forge burns at 2400 degrees, so it didn’t take long to heat the rod to a malleable point. Then I was handed a big hammer and began pounding. Over the course of the next couple of hours, that 4″ rod began to take shape and actually look like a knife.
It is a time consuming process, for a beginner. You literally only have about a minute to work the red hot steel, before it cools enough that you have to put it back into the furnace. 3 to 5 minutes in the furnace and once again the steel is hot enough to continue to shape it.
As you pound the red hot steel, it stretches, spreading it thinner and thinner. It’s at that point you begin to form the shape of the blade and handle. Once you have the blade the shape you want, you turn your attention to the handle. That too is left up to you. You can do a basic knife handle, or make it as intricate as you want.
After a few hours, I had the knife formed how I wanted it. It was at this point I handed it over to the bladesmith, for Collier to sharpen and polish. When he had finished, Collier grabbed a piece of paper and sliced several slivers off of it.
Being a hunter, I now know I have a functional, sharp knife I can use in the field. In fact, I am anxious to use it to field dress the next animal I am lucky enough to harvest, and will be sure to send a picture to Iron Grove so he can hang it in his shop, if he likes!
If you’re interested in purchasing one of the Iron Grove Tool Company pieces, or better yet perhaps taking a class and making your own knife, just click on this link for more information: https://www.irongrovetoolcompany.com/