Our Story

Iron Wolf Engineering is a story of two friends, one with a passion for history and making hand made knives and the other with a passion for learning new skills and building just about anything you can imagine.  Together this partnership has seen us restore an historic lathe, build our own tools, equipment and infrastructure and learn how to become true bladesmiths.  Every project we undertake gives us the opportunity to improve our skills and learn new ones.  All of this, despite both having full time jobs and for one of us a family shows how much can be achieved by two friends in a back-garden workshop.

Wolfy

Growing up in an Industrial city of Cardiff, it is no surprise that my Father and Grandfather both had "workshops", these being the shed at the end of the garden filled with gardening tools and all the necessary for keeping the garden nice, but also with a work bench, vice, and all the hand tools necessary to maintain all the tools and machinery in good working order.  As a kid, I grew to love my fathers workshop and I spent countless hours fabricating knives, swords, shields and bows  out of wood, leather and bamboo so I could play at being a knight, a warrior, a hero (Yep I was THAT kid). 

I have also had an interest in knives since the age of about eight when I started my collection with a tiny little folding knife that came on a key chain I got on holiday with my parents.  I became fascinated with the history of knifemaking, the different types of knives developed over the centuries, the way they were made, their significance in different cultures.  I started collecting knives from different parts of the worlds and learned how to care for them, sharpen them and most importantly how to use them safely.

Eventually as I grew up and took metalworking in high school I learned how to work with steel and made my first knife in my fathers shed out of a piece of angle iron.  Fast forward 25 years of other priorities and I finally had the chance to build my own workshop, and start doing what I love the most, which is making knives by hand. 

For me, Iron Wolf Engineering is about creating beautiful and functional one of a kind blades that others can enjoy and feel that same way I always did when acquiring a new knife.  Along the way I have learned, and I am still learning new skills and challenging myself on a weekly basis to become better at what I do and love.

MetalerMan

This all started for me when Wolfy invited me over one saturday to help with the lathe restoration so one saturday turned into lots of weekends restoring the Atlas 10f. Then once that project was finished i moved on to making my first knife (Devils Edge). then we had an idea (which sounded crazy at the time) to build our own knife makers belt grinder