Welcome to the Tharwa Valley Forge

We aim to be the best knifemaking school in Australia, offering a wide range of courses and opportunities to learn and share skills. Regular classes are scheduled in a variety of topics. Since we started running classes, hundreds of people have been introduced to the art of custom knife making and successfully made their first knives.

The Tharwa Valley Forge was established in 2003 by bladesmith Karim Haddad to create high quality knives and tools, and to teach the skills necessary to do this. Karim was trained by Australia's first Master Bladesmith, Thomas Gerner, in the early 1990's in Western Australia. The Forge is located in village of Tharwa,  just south of Canberra, Australia.

Courses are rated in terms of difficulty to make it easier to pick the right level. See here for more information.

Our website encourages this continual learning through sharing resources, tutorials and articles. We are always interested in feedback on how to make this site better. We hope you learn something from your visit. and come back soon and see us again.

Upcoming Courses

Thu Apr 29 @19:30 - 09:30PM
Sharpening
Fri Apr 30 @19:00 - 05:00PM
Knifemaking (SOLD OUT)
Thu Jun 24 @19:30 - 09:30PM
Sharpening
Fri Jun 25 @19:00 - 05:00PM
Knifemaking (SOLD OUT)
Fri Jul 02 @19:00 - 05:00PM
Folding Knives
Sun Jul 04 @08:00 - 05:00PM
Damascus Introduction
Thu Jul 29 @19:30 - 09:30PM
Sharpening
Fri Jul 30 @19:00 - 05:00PM
Knifemaking (TWO PLACES LEFT)
Sun Aug 29 @08:00 - 05:00PM
Damascus Introduction
Thu Oct 07 @19:30 - 09:30PM
Sharpening
Fri Oct 08 @19:00 - 05:00PM
Knifemaking (TWO PLACES LEFT)
Thu Nov 25 @19:30 - 09:30PM
Sharpening
Fri Nov 26 @19:00 - 05:00PM
Knifemaking