Greg (my baby brother) has been making knives for about a year now (ie: plaguing us with knives–normal people do not need as many knives as we currently have in the house).  He started off taking classes at GoatnHammer Forge in downtown Atlanta–and still goes down there frequently to use the equipment.  Fun fact: The Hunger Games industrial district was filmed at GoatnHammer.

The first ones he made looked a bit like funky metal banana peels…he’s gotten a lot better with practice.  Many of the things he used to do down at the forge, he now does at the house.  Ex: Below he’s cutting pieces of metal to size…he burned a hole in the garage carpet a few months back doing this exact same thing (it smelled disgusting).  Yesterday, he burned his shorts. 🙂

Greg uses varying types of metal for the blades: O1 Tool Steel, 440c Stainless  steel, 5160 Spring Steel, CMPS30V, and 1095 Carbon Steel.

As far as the handles go, he makes them out of stabilized wood, birds eye maple, zebra wood, bocote, micarta, and kranite.  The kranite blue with yellow swirls was my birthday present.  It’s taller than my head.  I still have no idea what to do with a knife taller than my head, but I own one now, so that’s neat!

Greg does makes knives to order, and turn around is about two weeks.  He takes requests; if you’re interested in something specific I’d encourage you to email him and ask.  I’ve watched him work at this for a year now, and while he’s made some very normal looking knives, he’s also made some funky ones.  He can make railroad spike knives (see the first photo), or knives out of old files (not his favorite).  Theoretically he could make a knife out of Michael’s broken mother board!

I hope that answers most of the questions from yesterday!  If you’re interested in pricing, requests, or even more about his process, you can contact him at:

santoroknives@gmail.com