Forge a Survival Knife

Workshop at a Glance

Price: Starting at $275 per person

Duration: 4 hours

Location: Craftsman Ave Workshop at 68 34th St. Brooklyn, NY 11232

Class size: Our workshops are intentionally kept intimate — small enough that every guest receives the personal attention they deserve, with enough skilled guides on hand to ensure no question goes unanswered and no detail is missed. Most workshops usually include no more than 12 to 15 guests.

Skill Level : Beginner — no previous experience is required.

What You’ll Be Making : A practical and functional utility knife.

What You’ll Be Doing: Shaping your blade with copious amounts of heat and hammers, plus some help from a grinder

What’s Included? All Materials & Tools Provided!

What To Expect

There is a moment — standing at the anvil, hammer in hand, watching steel glow orange in the forge — when you understand something ancient about the relationship between fire and tools and human hands.

That moment is waiting for you.

In this workshop, you will take a piece of ordinary rebar — the same steel rod used to reinforce concrete — and transform it into a knife of your own design. Not a kit. Not an assembly project. A knife you shaped yourself, from raw steel, using heat and hammers and your own two hands.

The first hours belong to the forge. You’ll fire your steel until it glows red-hot, then move to the anvil and hammer it into the profile you want. Shape it. Reheat it. Hammer it again. This is the part that surprises people — how physical it is, how satisfying, how quickly an hour disappears.

When the shape is right, you’ll quench the blade in oil to harden it. Red-hot metal hits cold oil and the whole thing catches — there’s a reason this is the moment everyone reaches for their phone. If you’ve ever watched “Forged in Fire” and wondered what that felt like, now you’ll know.

Then we take a break. Your knife needs to cool, and you’ve earned it. Industry City is full of excellent options — grab a bite, a drink, or just take a breath of fresh air in the courtyard. Come back when you’re ready.

From there, you’ll move to the grinder to refine the shape and work the bevel — the geometry at the heart of every cutting edge.

The final chapter is finishing — wrapping the handle, sharpening the blade to a working edge. You’ll leave with something that required fire and force and patience to make. Your arm will be slightly sore. Your pride will not be.