About our forge
In the mid 1920s Alex's grandfather, who was a third generation fisherman himself, began to forge blades for himself and other locals. Over the ensuing decades his son, Alex's father shifted the family focus fully to blade smithing. For years he worked on his craft and became known for his blades. He supplied hundreds of local chefs in and around their fishing village in South China.
As Alex grew up around the forge, his ambitions began to grow. He attended Wuhan University in the Hubei Province to study industrial design. Then after graduation he furthered his studies in Seki Japan learning the true arts of forging Japanese style blades.
After years of study and apprenticeship he returned to the family forge where he took over and began to grow production, expanding capabilities, styles being produced, and began sourcing steel from Takefu in Japan.
Alex and his wife Carole now run the forge full time with a team of 3 blacksmiths, 2 expert polishers, and 3 who focus on sharpening and polishing.
As business began to grow and Alex reached farther out to more chefs as well as gaining a client in Europe and then with Forge To Table in the United States, they needed more equipment! In the summer of 2019 we added the most recent(the 3rd) kiln.
Every single step of the process is done by hand, from hammering to sharpening to polishing the handles. Some of the team have been making knives for over 50 years and were on the original team with Alex's father. Others joined Alex after he returned from his international studies and have been with him for about ten years now.
While there for my last visit, Alex trained me and I made about 6 blades myself!
No matter how large the forge will grow, Alex will always hand sign every box. Every box is signed with the guarantee of quality of the forge and stamped with the seal of his brand and the family forge.