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4.95 / 5 · 1200+ Reviews
4.95 / 5 · 1200+ Reviews
Lifetime Resharpening, Warranty & Free Engraving
Lifetime Resharpening, Warranty & Free Engraving
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Auspost Shipping
Made in Anna Bay, NSW
Made in Anna Bay, NSW
Grinding a knife blade at the Iron Gate Knives workshop, Anna Bay
Six seats a class · Anna Bay

Spend a day on the tools.Take home the knife you made.

Eight hours in our workshop with the makers who build every Iron Gate blade. You grind it, you finish it, you handle it. It goes home with you that afternoon.

Join the waitlist
  • 8am–4pmOne full day
  • 6People per class
  • $700Everything included
  • 0Experience needed
Reserve your spot

Dates coming soon

We are locking in the next round of class dates now. Six seats a class and they go quickly, so leave your details and you will hear about them before they go public.

Coming soon

Class dates

Six seats a class · Saturdays in Anna Bay · announced to this list first.

$700per person, all in

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How the day runs

Eight hours, start to finish

You are on the tools nearly all of it. We handle the parts that need a trained eye and talk you through everything else.

Coffee and the safety run-through

Meet the makers, get your gear on, and pick the blade profile you want to build. We walk you through the machines you will be using and the ones you will not.

Profiling and grinding

You start on the belt grinder, taking your blank down to the shape you chose. This is the part everyone thinks will be hard and everyone ends up loving.

Bevel grinding

The bit that turns a flat piece of steel into a knife. You set your grind line and walk the bevels down evenly on both sides, with one of us on your shoulder the whole way.

Surface finishing

Work the flats back through the grits until every scratch runs the same way. Slow, oddly satisfying, and the point where it starts to look like a knife you would pay for.

Lunch

Proper feed, on us, in the workshop. This is usually when the stories start.

Handles

Pick your timber. Tasmanian blackwood, ringed gidgee, deer antler and a few others on the day. Shape it, pin it, epoxy it, sand it back until it fits your hand.

Polishing

Bring the handle and the steel up to finish. Two people can use the same timber and never end up with the same knife, and this is where yours starts looking like yours.

Engraving

Your name, a date, whatever you want, cut into the steel opposite the Iron Gate mark. Same place we put it on every knife that leaves here.

Sharpen, finish, done

Put a working edge on it, oil the handle, and we knock off with a cold drink and a photo. Nearly everyone walks out with their knife finished that afternoon.

What $700 covers

Everything except the drive

Your knife

The steel, the timber, the pins, the epoxy, the sheath. You take it home the same day — it is yours.

Lunch and a drink

A proper lunch in the middle of the day, and a cold one at four o’clock when the knife is finished.

All the gear

Apron, glasses, ear protection, gloves and every machine in the shop. Just bring closed shoes.

The makers

Two of us on the floor all day for six people. You are never waiting around for a turn.

  • ◆No experience needed. Most people who walk in have never touched a grinder.
  • ◆Ages 16+. Under 18 needs a parent on site — plenty of father-and-son pairs book together.
  • ◆Wear closed shoes and clothes you do not mind marking up. That is the whole dress code.
  • ◆4236 Nelson Bay Road, Anna Bay NSW. Parking on site, about 40 minutes from Newcastle.
Before you book

Questions we get asked

Do I really take the knife home?

That is the whole point of the day, and it is how nearly every class ends — finished, sharpened, handled and in your hand by four o’clock. It is the knife you made, not one we swapped in.

We will not rush you to hit a deadline, though. Now and then someone takes their time on the bevels or the handle, and we would rather it be right than finished. If that happens we complete it in the workshop that week and post it to you at our cost.

Do I heat treat the blade on the day?

No — your blank comes to you already hardened and tempered, done properly in the workshop beforehand. Heat treating is slow and fussy and squeezing it into a class day is how you end up with a knife that will not hold an edge. You do the profiling, the grinding, the finishing, the handle and the sharpening. That is the part that makes it yours.

What if I have never done anything like this?

That is most people who book. Six students and two makers means someone is beside you the whole way. The only thing you need is to turn up.

Can I buy it as a gift?

Yes — tick the gift box when you reserve and we will email you a card to print or forward, with the date on it. If the date does not suit them, reply to the email and we will move them.

Why do I pay the full $700 now?

Six seats a class means a no-show costs someone else their spot. Paying in full holds it properly. You can transfer to another date or hand your seat to someone else up to 14 days out.

What can I choose on the day?

Your blade profile from the ones we have blanked for the class, and your handle timber from what is on the rack — usually Tasmanian blackwood, ringed gidgee, deer antler and a couple of others.

Can two of us come together?

Reserve two spots on the same date. Fathers and sons, mates, couples — it works well with someone you know.

$700 per person Dates open soon
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