Much like quite a few knife makers over the last few years my journey began watching Forged In Fire on the TV.
Making a very basic forge from an eight pint beer keg and an old curtain pole, after most of a bag of coal and a lot of smoke I had my first heat treated blade. It was ugly, but it did cut.
A few years down the line and I'm now cooking with gas and have upgraded the file I started with to a 2x72 grinder in my little Essex based workshop.
The leather work element has been a steep learning curve all by itself. This is now one of my most satisfying parts of the process.
This is a great hobby for me and fits in with my other passions of country sports and cooking. Both areas that I get to test my own products.