Hanoi Knife Making Traditional Workshop

Come for the knives. Stay for the stories. Leave with something that may or may not cut a tomato. 🔥🔪 About 40 minutes beyond the beautiful chaos of Hanoi lies a small village where the soundtrack isn’t scooters and car horns. It’s fire, hammers and steel. This is where generations of Vietnamese knife makers have been quietly practising an ancient craft — turning old car springs into kitchen blades, one red-hot piece of steel at a time. Our host, Minh, gathered us up and threw us straight into the action. No showroom. No glass cases. No “please observe the master while standing safely behind this line.” We were in. Hands-on. Dangerously enthusiastic. The family business has been forging knives for more than four generations, and Minh showed us the extraordinary range of shapes and styles they produce. We picked our blade shape. Selected our wood. Then headed for the forge. The raw material? Old car springs. Because apparently when your car finally gives up on life in Vietnam, its springs get a second career. We cut the basic shape, threw the steel onto a bed of extremely angry-looking coals and waited for it to reach that magical glowing orange that says: “Now hit me with a hammer.” And so began three hours of belting, banging, grinding and generally attempting to convince a piece of car suspension that it really wanted to become a chef’s knife. In between the hammering came the stories. Stories of the family’s history. Of the struggles of keeping a traditional craft alive. Of changing times. And of the astonishing reality that this little family operation can produce more than 250 blades a day when the orders are flowing. Meanwhile, two foreigners stood nearby producing something that bore a passing resemblance to a knife and would probably struggle to cut through a cloud. But we persevered. The handles were shaped. The blades were ground. Chips, blemishes and our various creative interpretations of “straight” were slowly removed. And somehow, unbelievably, the blunt, ugly piece of steel started to look like an actual knife. Then came the heat treatment. Another blast through the forge. Salt. And an oily quench. Hiss. The blade was born. Finally, the sharpening stone came out. A few more passes. A little more patience. And… Voilà. Two blades forged from old car springs, made by hand, with our own sweat, questionable hammer technique and a little help from four generations of Vietnamese craftsmanship. Three hours disappeared. Just like that. And that’s the thing about experiences like this. You don’t come here simply to make a knife. You come to step outside the tourist conveyor belt for a few hours. To sit amongst people who have spent their lives doing something that existed long before Instagram, TikTok and fast travel decided everything needed to happen immediately. You hear the stories. You feel the heat. You hear the hammer hitting steel. You make something with your own hands. And you leave carrying something that isn’t just a souvenir. It’s a memory. The world is getting faster by the minute. Everything is becoming automated, instant and disposable. But places like this still exist. People still pass down skills learned from their parents, who learned them from theirs. Four generations. One forge. One piece of old car spring at a time. So get off your arse. Take the road less travelled. Find these places. Meet these people. Have a go. You might make a knife. You might make something that looks suspiciously like a knife. Either way, you’ll make a memory. And that’s worth far more than anything sitting on a souvenir shelf. 🔥🔨🇻🇳 Three hours. One family. Two questionable knife makers. Memories forged forever. This is travel.

A wonderful unique few hours spent in a local village learning the craft of knife making. Couldn’t do better with your time.. the experience was amazing and very personable. Tee and family were friendly, knowledable and professional. A once in a lifetime opportunity to create something you and your family will treasure for many lifetimes !!

This was an amazing experience. Tee was very friendly and a great translator. The business is family run and everyone has a roll in the steps to help you creat your knife. They are so welcoming and patient with you.

Had an amazing time. Great host and tour guide would 100% do again and recommend. Just 20 minutes out of Hanoi too so nice and close

Fantastic experience!! Highly recommend to do this tour visiting a family of 3 generations making knives by hand!! This was a highlight of our trip 🔪

- The activity itself is a 5 out of 5. - You get to choose the type of knife you want to make and then off you go from forging and shaping to honing and sharpening! - It was a really fun and different activity. - You also have the option of buying a ready made knife at an excellent cost. - The reason for not giving it 5/5 was that the morning of the activity we were asked to walk 10 minutes to a meeting point (vs the hotel pick up option that we had selected). We were then advised we may need to pay additional money ($2 or $3USD) for the transport due to needing larger car needed to accommodate 4 people. It was all very confusing but became clearer when the transport was Grab vs a private transport. In the end there was no additional charge and we were returned to the same meeting point via grab. - Given the transport is just a Grab - you can easily do that yourself so I’d skip the pick up option. - Regardless we’d do it again.

This is a unique experience where you truly make a knife from start to finish. I was a bit nervous, but the family is warm and welcoming and instantly put me at ease. The whole process takes about two hours and to walk away with a knife and many memories.

My wife and I had the pleasure of experiencing authentic vietnamese knife making in hanoi. The experience was amazing and I would do it 100% again. We got picked up at our hotel in old town at roughly 08:30 and arrived at our destination roughly 09:15. There we were greeted by a cup of tea. Then we were shown some prepared knife forms. We were able to choose between japanese and traditional vietnamese knife forms. We took the sample and started by heating it up in fire and continuously hammered the material to slowly develop a edge. You get assistance all the way and they make sure to fix any mistakes you do. After we finish hammering the rough edge, we let it cool and proceed in cutting a piece of wood in the form of a handle. Afterwards we smooth the handle by using a grinding machine. This is followed by grinding the knife and rounding it so the backside does not cut while preparing the cutting edge. In the end we used a wet stone to sharpen the edge and test it by cutting a piece of paper. The material used is a recycled car part but I forgot the actual name. The people are super nice and the vibe is amazing. The while process took somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. Would do it again tomorrow. Had so much fun. Was the highlight of our hanoi trip. I did it together with my wife. Both do not have any handywork experience and we still had a blast and a good cutting knife as a endresult. As it is not a stainless steel knife if can rust if not taking care properly but you also get the necessary information on how to maintain it.

Great experience with my son and our guide “Son”. He was very informative and took plenty of photos and videos for us while we were making the knives. The family that own and run the shop were lovely and so helpful. Doesn’t matter your skill level at all. You will end up with a great little souvenir at the end of the class. Highly recommend doing this when you’re in Hanoi

The guide Khoi was very nice and helpful. He brought us to the family-operated workshop. Khoi translated for us and gave us interesting insights into the work and live of the family. During the knife-making process Khoi and the worksmen guided us and let us do each individual step for a good part on our own. In the end, each of us had a self-made knife in our pocket, learned a lot about the craft and got to know a nice family.