I got this as a Christmas present for my hubby last year. It took him a while, but he finally finished making this knife and he absolutely LOVES it! It's now his favorite knife and he's asking for another type of knife for this Christmas. I definitely recommend this!

My boyfriend is super into forging and knife making. Sadly, since we live in an apartment now, he doesn’t have the space for all of his tools. I got him this for his birthday and he LOVES it.

Just finished mine and used it for the first time. It appears to be a high quality blade although it’s thinner than I’d prefer. The kit is 100% complete but it would take a long time if you just used the tools provided. Luckily I own a small belt sander and palm sander. It took me about 3hrs to shape the handle and it came out great.

My kids got me this for x-mas. Literally everything was included in the box, including a vice. Directions were very good, and witty lol. Definitely follow them. Was my first build and came out great! Great gift!

I received the chef knife kit for Christmas and just completed it. Very enjoyable. I agree with someone's comment that the scales should be a bit smaller. I purposely used just the rasp and files and that made it quite a bit if work but turned out well. I think YOU ARE MISSING A SELLING OPPORTUNITIY. You should offer a high end fish filleting knife kit.

Possibly one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. I’m a super hands on person and love creating. Unfortunately due to our living situation I don’t have many tools on hand. Not an issue with this gift. They literally send you everything you need in one box. The only thing you need to provide is the elbow grease! Cheers guys! Thanks for the crate gift

I had a great experience with the text customer service support and I am a very satisfied customer.

I got this for my husband as an early father's day present in 2019, and it has become our favorite chef's knife well into 2020. This knife comes with quality materials and if you take care of it (sharpening/honing it and piling the handle occasional) it keeps beautifully. Even my mother-in-law who we were staying with preferred it over her other knives! We love Mancrates and their kits, especially the knife ones, and your men are sure to be pleased with them as well.

I got this gift from my daughters and Ss-I-L for my b’day. I did a lot of research to learn about professional knife-making tools, none of which I have. The “old fashioned way” - hand rasps and files - looked to be more labor intensive than a guy with power tools has patience for. I took a lot of time out of the project using my angle grinder with a flap disk to shape the mikarta, multi-tool sanding tool for fine sanding and polishing with steel wool, and Dremel tool cut-off wheel to cut the pins. The next one shouldn’t take more than a couple hours to complete. The only problem was that the kit only had one mosaic pin, but Ace Hardware had suitable replacements. Power tools can make the job go faster AND screw it up really fast - here’s where to spend your patience. Great knife!

I got this as a Christmas present and just finished it, only getting a chance to work on it here and there. It was a lot of work to remove material from the micarta by using the files, i did have to resort to using a hacksaw to remove the bulk of it and then fine tune with the files.

I did have to keep taking apart the vise to retighten the allen head bolt that attaches the vice to the base, maybe if they used threadlocker it would stay put. I also applied some antiseize to the threads of the vice since they say its aluminum and the threads are steel.

Overall i'm very satisfied with the results. I might apply some wax or mineral spirits to the handle to make it a bit darker.

Got this as a father's day/anniversary gift for my husband. He loves knives and can be quite a snob about them, so I was nervous this would be up to his standards but he thought it was awesome! The knife itself is nice, and he keeps the handle oiled as well as the blade sharpened since we use it all the time. This turned out to be well worth the money.

1/4 of the way into this project I realized that power tools were the way to go. That handle would never have been finished with the rasp. Orbital sander and several other sanders worked wonders. Now that it is done, the blade quality if far superior to my $200+ German chef knife. Wish I could do a whole set.

Good quality knife materials. The file definitely not sufficient but since knife making from scratch is my hobby, I just switched to my own. Otherwise it would have taken forever.

My wife had bought this for me for Christmas I love working on the knife, the problem I have is the vice doesn't hold the still while trying to work on it. The mechanism that is use to hold the pivot ball barely holds it in place. The carriage bolt bottoms out on the tightening nut lever. I also have a problem with the rasp that was supplied, the side opposite of the half round course side is somewhat unusable due the course side going into the edge of the flat side. I can't wait till I get it finished.

I gave this to my husband who is a chef at a big time restaurant and he loved it! He started working on it the second he opened it. The blade is very nice quality. I am still waiting to see the finished product but I am sure it will be great. The only con is since I paid so much it would have been nice to come in a crate!

I bought this for my husband for his birthday. He's always wanted to make a knife so I thought this would be fun without having to invest in a forge! He is also a very good cook so what better than a chef knife. He had so much fun putting this knife together! It is absolutely the most beautiful knife we have and it is so sharp I'm almost afraid to use it! I would recommend this gift to everyone!

My girlfriend gave me this + the bloody mary crate for Valentines day. She called it My Bloody Valentine. Gotta love a girl like that!! Its a great knife and i like that you can shape it to your grip. I made it slighly D shaped which i think is more comfortable. I also put a little mineral oil on it to help bring out the color. A+ and a knife i can call my own.

I'm an at home chef for my family and have a small collection of knives. This one will be a great addition to what I already have.

Bought this kit for the boyfriend for Valentine's Day. He was super surprised but loved it. The finished product is absolutely gorgeous. Worth every penny.

I purchased this kit for my husband for Valentine's day. He loved it and was so surprised that I found such an awesome gift that suited him perfect. It took him a few weeks before he got a chance to make it. But when he did, it turned out absolutely beautiful and makes the perfect kitchen knife. It's super sharp and we use it for all our cooking needs. ( He didn't know it was for me too. LOL) I made him promise not to go on your website because I am planning on another knife making set for our anniversary in May.

The instructions were perfect and ALL the materials were high quality. Super happy with this knife.

High quality materials and kit includes everything you need to complete a professional quality knife. I had two minor problems in assembling my knife.
1. The vice has a problem with the ball joint. There is a mold line on the ball that protrudes above the surface of the ball. This interferes with the smooth functioning of the joint. A little filing to smooth it will fix it.
2. The scales provided are way too big, necessitating a LOT of grunt work filing them down. Best to mark the outline of the tang, leaving an extra 1/4” or so. Then trim the scales with a hacksaw or other fine toothed saw, then glue the scales in place.

Wow! Just received the Damascus Steel Chef Knife crate for Christmas. This is the best gift ever. I've always been interested in knives and knife making but do not have the equipment or skills to forge my one. This kit allows you to experience part of the creative process and comes complete with everything you need to make a beautiful (and super high quality) Damascus steel chef knife. I will begin making mine tomorrow. I highly recommend this high quality kit for anyone looking to give that unique jaw-dropping gift, or a gift for that creative person in your life.

Got this for the Mister as a Christmas present so he hasn't seen it yet, BUT I opened to make sure all the goodies were there (they are) and I was very impressed with the quality of the knife blade itself and the set of hand tools. When the accessory box seemed to have some weight to it, I knew they were well made. I can't wait until he opens it and gets going on it. Definitely will be back in a couple months for a hands on review.

Forget the files.. Micarta is too hard.
With the included files/rasp it makes a good project for a 20 year to lifer. With nothing else to do.
A Rotary tool with sanding spindle needs to be included