I took Wayne's two day knife making course and below is the result. It was great to mold the metal by hand and create something beautiful. If you're interested in blacksmithing or knifemaking I highly recommend taking a weekend and learning all about it.

I just got back from a 2 day knife making course with Wayne and had an awesome time! Wayne is very experienced blacksmith and knife maker with plenty of curiosity, creativity and patience for all of my questions! He let me design a knife at first, and I actually chose to do a meat cleaver style that he hadn't done before! From the selection of steel, to forging, shaping, grinding, heating, more grinding, heat treating,quenching, tempering and custom handle making; he showed me how to do it all on his own knife first and then allowing me to get hands on and do it myself on my custom knife. The course was actually a birthday present for me, so as I was given the gift of knowledge, I returned a gift of a custom knife! 🙂 This practical focus was extremely valuable and I'm not sure many other courses offer the same amount of hands on experience. This high focus on practical experience rather than theory which was great, but I had to do my best to remember everything since I couldn't write anything down. Perhaps a print out summarising the steps would have been a good take away? The one on one teaching style was very effective!

I did Wayne's knife making course and profoundly enjoyed it, his knowledge, attention to detail but more importantly wonderful teaching technique made the experience AMAZING. I can't recommend it highly enough. The knife I made is a true masterpiece and the knowledge I gained was invaluable. In fact as I said to Wayne "If there was a Zombie apocalypse , i would rescue my family first, then make Bee Line for Wayne " He's knowledge was that impressive.

I have just completed a two-day blacksmithing course with Wayne Saunders, and on reflection, it was a great experience. As well as being a top bloke to know and work with, Wayne is that rare combination of a true craftsman who is also a competent teacher. He mostly uses a ‘demonstrate direct monitor’ style of instruction that involves you first watching what has to be done before trying it out yourself. All the time you are working Wayne keeps you focused on developing the best stance, hammer strokes, sequences and so on. This really helped me to unlearn some bad habits developed elsewhere. His professional knowledge is just profound and the jobs we decided on allowed me to practice a range of skills. In two days I learned more than in a couple of years of reading books and hammering iron in my workshop at home and seeing how he has his shop laid out and how all the items there operate as a system was really valuable as well. This course was a great investment and I can sincerely recommend it to anyone that wants to really learn about blacksmithing. Paul Burnham

My partner and I took a one day course on blacksmithing basics. It was a great experience, and my partner who was reluctant really became involved and has now given me permission to start my own backyard forge. Can never thank Wayne enough for showing us the skills to get started and giving great pointers. Will encourage all our friends and family to complete a course it was lots of fun. Wayne is an excellent and patient teacher who took time to show us the skills it was really appreciated. We will be back for more courses in the future.

I recently took Wayne's two day course as a novice blacksmith and I was more than pleased with the results. Wayne has a great step by step methods for teaching you the basic skills and has a lot of knowledge to empathy to his students. I achieved far more than I expected from the weekend completing half a dozen projects including my first set of smithing tongs. Wayne's patience for my novice ability was also greatly appreciated and was a please to work with. Thanks again Wayne for the opportunity and for all the good stories! I look forward to consolidating my skills and perhaps returning for your knife making course.

Over the course of two days, Wayne managed to guide me through the process of creating a much needed set of 1.2m brackets to hold together a rather large double shower recess. Not only did I learn a huge amount and develop the skills to manufacture these brackets but the decorative embossing and scroll work that was included in the design have turned them into something artistic and a real addition to a circa 1880;s cottage. Is a real pleasure that such a time honoured skill like blacksmithing can live on and be experienced in this day and age. Just working the forge and watching how a lump of metal can be transformed by a craftsman was worth the trip from 100km Sydney Thanks mate

Having done the 2 day blacksmithing course, I can say that apart from Wayne being a top bloke he is a highly skilled blacksmith and adept teacher. Wayne prides himself on tailoring the course and experience to your skill level and interests, weather it be on tools, decorative smithing, or sharp edges. Wayne has had a lot of experience in many facets of blacksmithing and is able to flow from one topic to the other. A great time to be had for anyone with a genuine interest in blacksmithing.

Myself and Younger Brother wanted to do BlackSmithing and Knife Making, I had had experience 15 yrs ago and my Brother None..... We did a few things but I had forgotten some fundamental rules and we sourced out Wayne..... Well we found Wayne to be very helpfull and decided to combine a 2 day Blacksmiths course with a 2 day Knife Making course to cement what we were being taught and shown into our Heads, which we found to be the BEST for us..... We made several tools for other purposes, and both walked away with knives we are both very proud of....... We both would recommend Wayne's courses Both of them are Brilliant and we now consider Wayne to be a. Mate, Stick with Wayne and you will end up with some thing you WANT to show your mate and Family.. Top stuff Wayne and he is a good Bloke as well

I just got back from a 2 day knife making course with Wayne and had an awesome time! Wayne is very experienced blacksmith and knife maker with plenty of curiosity, creativity and patience for all of my questions! He let me design a knife at first, and I actually chose to do a meat cleaver style that he hadn't done before! From the selection of steel, to forging, shaping, grinding, heating, more grinding, heat treating,quenching, tempering and custom handle making; he showed me how to do it all on his own knife first and then allowing me to get hands on and do it myself on my custom knife. The course was actually a birthday present for me, so as I was given the gift of knowledge, I returned a gift of a custom knife! 🙂 This practical focus was extremely valuable and I'm not sure many other courses offer the same amount of hands on experience. This high focus on practical experience rather than theory which was great, but I had to do my best to remember everything since I couldn't write anything down. Perhaps a print out summarising the steps would have been a good take away? The one on one teaching style was very effective! At times there was a little bit of idling, which I think was due to a lack of a structure or schedule. Im not sure you can really make one for such a creative process, but I think if there was more concurrent activities going, making 2 knives in 2 days would have been definitely achievable, and I would have been over the moon to go home with two knives! Overall, I don't think you'll find a better course than this. I thoroughly enjoyed myself the whole time and I feel like I am well equipped with enough knowledge to get myself started into the world of blacksmithing and knife making thanks to Wayne!

I did the 2 day blacksmith’s course while my sons made knifes. They were delighted they turned an old plough disc into professional looking knifes and learning a heap of skills along the way, from hand forging the blade to sanding and coating the handle. I found the blacksmith’s course very rewarding, I now have the confidence to pick up almost any old piece of steel and know I can make something with it.

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We did the 2 day knife making course for a bit of fun and it was very rewarding and interesting. Wayne is a very good teacher, breaking the lesson up into little pieces keeping it engaging and surprisingly quick and easy. Thanks again Wayne! We’ll be back again soon

I chose to do this training with Wayne after doing a fair bit of research and speaking to a few blacksmiths at IronFest. Wayne was very highly regarded by his fellow blacksmiths and i have to say, he really lived up to his reputation! I decided to do a 4 day combination of blacksmith fundamentals and knife making and am extremely happy with the level of professionalism and skill Wayne brings.At the end of the course i took home a some hand forged tools and a very beautiful kitchen knife. I would happily recommend Wayne's courses to anyone interested in the blacksmithing and knife making arts.

Had a blast making my knife and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Wayne was awesome in helping me refine my technique both with hammer and grinder. I couldn't recommend this course highly enough to anyone wanting to learn how to make a knife of even just the fundamentals of blacksmithing. I'll definitely be back.

My husband and I just did the 2 day knife making course in July 2020. We did plenty of things we've never done before like blacksmithing and blade sharpening and in the end we had knives so much better than we thought possible. I absolutely recommend Wayne's course as he knows so much about working metal into beautiful things. Do yourself a life favour and do this course, you will impress your friends soooo much with what you've made. You don't need prior experience but you have to be willing to get your hands dirty and give it all a go. Thanks very much Wayne.

The 2 day Blacksmithing Course exceeded expectations beyond belief. At the end of the two days Wayne had covered alot of theory and taught us many useful practical skills to make some very useful tools and decorative pieces. We can't wait to do a knife making course under Wayne's guidance because we know the end product will be exceptional. Thanks Wayne, the weekend was very entertaining and enjoyable.

Thank you Wayne for you patience and guidance over an awesome two days. My hubby and I have wanted to make knives for the longest time. The results speak for themselves with two beautiful knives that we made ourselves.