Welcome to Tharwa Valley Forge
Tharwa Valley Forge runs courses every weekend and most days of the week. We provide everyone from novices to experts with the opportunity to experience traditional crafts and to learn new skills.
Bladesmith Karim Haddad established Tharwa Valley Forge in 2003. Karim trained in the early 1990's under Australia's first Master Bladesmith, Thomas Gerner, and has gone on to use his experience as a professional educator to share his knifemaking expertise with many others. Since establishing Tharwa Valley Forge, Karim and his staff have shared the skills necessary to create high quality knives and tools with hundreds of students.
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Grinding a forged blade
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Featured Courses

Sun 15-11-2020 9:00 am -3:00 pm

Learn how to make leather sheaths at home using inexpensive tools. During this short one-day course you'll make two leather sheaths for two of your own knives that you bring with you.

The skills you'll learn will not only allow you to make sheaths - they'll also get you started with a broad range of entry-level leatherworking projects. We'll also fill you in on the best places to source leather, fittings, patterns, and tools. Importantly, you'll also have the opportunity to talk to an experienced teacher about setting up to make sheaths at home.

Mon 14-12-2020 8:00 am - Fri 18-12-2020 5:00 pm

The key to getting into leatherwork isn't just learning basic skills. It’s about meta-skills. To be successful, you need to learn how to learn leatherwork.

Our five-day Leatherwork Foundations course will teach you the fundamental leatherwork skills required to successfully complete intermediate level projects. Importantly, you’ll also learn how to avoid wasting money on tools and material and how to choose projects that will end in success and growth. This course is suitable for anyone aged 16 years and up, no prior leatherwork experience necessary.

Custom Courses
Course dates don't suit? Is the course you want booked out? Get a group of friends together and book a course when it suits you. Not only can do any of the courses we offer, you can customise them to learn things that you don't see on our website. Custom courses usually cost the same as our scheduled courses and can be run with as little as two participants. Dates fill fast, so it's better to talk to us now rather than miss out.
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Production Cutlery
As one of the largest production knife makers in Australia, we've worked with a huge range of clients and made a diverse range of wonderful cutlery. Oyster shuckers, machetes, steak knives, combat knives, cleavers, cheese knives, carving swords for roast meat, champagne openers, kitchen knives... you get the idea. We provide our clients with the expertise to develop and manufacture a product that meets both their requirements and their budget.
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Gift Certificates
One of the many cool things about running a Forge is the diverse range of interesting people we meet on our courses. At least a quarter of our bookings are made using Gift Certificates bought as birthday presents, anniversary gifts, rewards for employees, or as memorable surprises. We've seen some really cool and unique ways people have used our Gift Certificates. Check out some of our stories, or get your own Gift Certificate.
Give a Gift Certificate »
Shop Online
Our award winning bladesmiths are some of the best in Australia and hand-forge knives and cutlery every day of the work week, all year round. Some of their creations are available from our online shop with new releases every Friday at 11AM Canberra time. These pieces deliver the highest level of performance and will literally last a lifetime. If you're in Canberra, you are most welcome to drop by and make your purchase in person.
Buy Handmade Knives »

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