The blacksmith
A few words of introduction
September 2026, a note :
Hello everyone,
I've never written a post like this before, but I wanted to tell you about my current and future work: how things have changed, and how I see the coming months.
Looking back: thank you !
I started in 2011, at 23. I was living at my mother's house, with a workshop in a small shed on the farm. Two years earlier I had dropped out of journalism and philosophy studies, because I wanted to stop living the life society had chosen for me. So at first I didn't really want blacksmithing to become my job. I wanted to keep some distance and see it as an activity.
But society is always around, and it did become a job. I met customers, made estimates, ordered steel, and took on new work before finishing the current one, so I always had six months to a year booked ahead. I split each year between ironwork and kitchen knives, six months each.
In 2019 I stopped ironwork to focus on knives. I had no Instagram and had no online orders at that time. I sold mostly at knife shows in France.
Then 2020 and Covid came, and the shows were cancelled for almost two years. So I gave Instagram a try, and boom ! I have never struggled to sell a knife since, and I've had more customers every month. Around 2022, demand was so high that I set up a random draw, since I only make a small number of unique knives every month. I've met so many people and learned so much about steel, geometry, polishing and forging. I've been pushed and supported to do better every day thanks to you. And I found a great community of kitchen knife enthusiasts, with a wide variety of makers and styles, and people happy to share and discuss.
Now: September 2026, 15 years in the job, 6 on Instagram.
Things have changed, and so have I.
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Instagram: between 2024 and 2025, Instagram was very tough on knife content. I think the community has never really recovered: people interact and communicate a litte less. It also changed how I use the platform. I keep more distance now, and I've worked to make my business rely on it much less.
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The world: I've cared about politics and global human activity since I was about 10. I set that interest aside for roughly 15 years while building my work, but it came back to me in 2024. I won't go into detail, since it's a very divisive subject these days. For two years I've been more sensitive to what the world shows us, and to what humans are doing or not doing. It pushed me to run for my village council at a local level. My team didn't win, but I got a seat in the opposition. It’s not a full time job at all but It takes some time and headspace.
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Family: I am living a beautiful love story with my partner since 2010. And I am glad to announce you I’ll be dad for the first time in less than 2 months ! It will change my life and the time I spend during my days, that’s for sure !
All of this makes me feel differently about what matters and how I want to approach my work. It's a fascinating job, but I now also want time and room for other things in my life.
How I'll work from now on
1. Custom orders: closed for now. I'm sorry to many of you. I work much better freely, following my feelings and ideas, making a knife from them and selling it when it's finished. As I need time and headspace in the coming months, stopping custom orders is an obvious choice.
The point-based draw was a fairly good idea and worked reasonably well, but it had limits:
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Long-time applicants had much better odds, but newcomers still got a good share of the very few slots. Some people have been waiting for their first custom knife from me for ages.
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The list grew to about 850 people. For a few years now, even with my confirmation step, some selected people never answered my emails. It took a lot of time and organisation, and it didn't work that well in the end.
When I’ll reopen custom orders, it will be simpler: an email announcing 4 slots, and a random draw among the people interested.
2. Newsletter drops. Fewer customs means more time for available knives. Expect more frequent drops (well I hope !), mostly classic san mai blades, but also special pieces from time to time. Those will stay exceptional though.
3. Eating Tools, New York. I'll keep working with them. I think it's a great shop and showroom for makers like me. I'll keep bringing my best work there: Marbre Noir blades and full stone-polished blades.
4. Knife shows. I usually attend À l'Ouest knife show in Brittany in early July. It happens every two years, so the next one is in 2028. I don't plan to do other shows for now. The Austrian knife show must be a great event, and many makers and enthusiasts go there. For me, though, it's too big for the kind of event I like, and a bit too far away.
5. YouTube lives. I'm a little sorry about this project. I bought a good setup to film in great conditions, but I haven't done many lives. I still want to, and I need to make it a habit maybe: once a month maybe ?
Are you interested in these lives and stone-polishing talks? Or are they too long, and you'd prefer shorter edited videos of me explaining a specific topic? Either way, send me a quick message. It will help me stay motivated and see what interests you.
Thank you for reading. You're a great community. It's a pleasure every day to talk and share with you. Thanks to you, I can make a living from kitchen knives made entirely by hand, with all the care I can give: stone-polished blades, custom handles, in-house damascus. Not many people can make a living from this craft, and I'm very proud and grateful to make it work.
See you soon,
Milan
Le forgeron
Being a blacksmith today is an adventure looking to the future. Although he uses ancient techniques, the blacksmith has a very special task in the 21st century. More than ever, the blacksmith gives meaning to what surrounds us. Indeed, the objects he makes have a function, a history, have a place of birth, come from the world and are not detached from it.
Creating an object requires taking into account both the practical side of this object and its environmental dimension, i.e. its involvement in its environment (source of materials, tools used for its manufacture, its future use, the relationship with its creator).
By making objects according to these requirements, the craftsman gives meaning to his work ans to his creations. He enters in a creative process where the material and the tools he has made available to him will influence the final result. This will result in a unique object.
Each object is shaped with the desire to integrate it as well as possible into its environment. Whatever its function, the object fits into its environment and allows you to live a familiar experience in a different way.
The blacksmith thus transforms our environment, our uses.
That's why I make tools like knives. These are objects in which initially distinct elements come together: wood and iron, cold and heat, efficiency and aesthetics, tools and conviviality, technique and emotions. All my blades are forged and thus obtain a better resistance and special geometry. I use a water grinder and buffed polishers, ancient techniques that respect the steel during its machining without burning it. I now grind and polish my knives on whetstones. From the coarsest grain to the finest grain available by nature in the Japanese natural stones.
I also select and cut some of the wood that will be used to make the handles of the knives. I take care of the drying. I can thus guarantee its provenance and ensure its quality. My knives can be made to order in consultation with their future users or can be a free creation. Each knife is made entirely in my workshop in order to control the entire process and offer a high quality finished product.
Milan Gravier