My Story

Hi I’m Wilko Verboom. 

I have a great passion; Creating sharp usable tools and old fashion craftsmanship.

As a child I drove my parents crazy with collection tools and knives. At the age of thirteen I created my first forge. Youtube was not really around that time, so I had to figure out a lot by myself. I used an old thick metal tube, welded a metal cap on it, stuck a tube with holes in there and used my mom’s hairdryer to blow air into the forge. One could imagine that my mother was not very amused by this… That was also the first time I discovered what it’s like to have welders eye.

I got an old bench grinder and starting to grind my dad’s chisels and create my own tools with mild steel. I had no idea of the hardening concept of steel. But I had great fun doing it and started to sharpen the tools from family and friends.

About fourteen years ago I got the change to have my own workshop with a friend of mine in his company. I’m still using that workshop today. I started to study engineering (industrial product design), and also work as a mechanical engineer. I always kept my workshop aside, invested the money that I earned in my workshop. Build my own CNC milling machine, forge and way to many other projects to name right now. I could not wait for the weekend to start, so I could spend some time away from the work behind the computer designing all sort of cool stuff that I could not build myself…

Then the switch in my life came and I decided to follow my heart and start my own business. Because of my background and education I am able to help my costumers to design and create the best valuable tools in comparison to the money they want to spend.

Because I don’t solely rely on the knives for my income (I also am in business as Grateful Woodwork), I am able to make high quality knives for a good price.

That is also the main reason that I don’t work with fixed deadlines. The knife build takes as long as it takes. If I can’t stand by the quality because of a rush job, the knife doesn’t go out of my shop… I’ll always do my best to advise the customer about the best decisions they can choose for their knife. I have experience in the design and build and therefore know what does and doesn’t work in a knife. That’s why I have many costumers who order more than one knife from me.

I always try to use the best quality materials for the demands of the costumer and give my knives a good quality heat treat, by using computer controlled kilns and proper hardening oils.