Competition: win a bespoke hand-crafted chef's knife

In our latest competition, we've teamed up with Blenheim Forge in London to offer our readers the chance to design their own hand-crafted cooking knife.

This competition has now closed. 

The Blenheim Forge team make the knives by hand in their workshop underneath the railway arches in Peckham, London. 

One reader will win a place at a workshop where they will customise their very own knife. If they're unable to attend, the winner can also collaborate on the design of a knife with Blenheim Forge who will then make the knife and send it onto the winner, wherever they are.

Blenheim Forge founders Jon Warsharsky and James Ross-Harris discovered a joint love of making things, whilst living together in south London. 

Experimenting with a homemade meat smoker then moving onto a hot tub, the pair eventually built a forge in their garden where they started producing knives, before establishing the company in 2014. 

"Blenheim Forge was born from a quest to create knives of the highest character and performance," said the company. "A painstaking and exacting process, each knife takes approximately 20 hours to make."

Knives in the Classic range feature a walnut wood and copper handle with a carbon-steel blade.

Designs includes Petty, a lightweight knife for intricate tasks, Nakiri, the ideal knife for vegetable preparation, Gyuto, perfect for slicing through meat, fish and vegetables, and Santoku, which is able to tackle almost any ingredient.

The blades are crafted from a particular metal known as Blue Paper Steel. This also creates the unique ripples of metal, an aesthetic which the Forge's knives have become recognised for.

"The core of each knife, the part that makes the cut, is made from Japanese Aogami carbon steel – also known as Blue Paper Steel – which is internationally recognised as the optimum metal for chef's knives," says Blenheim Forge.

Instead of walnut the Stainless Clad range boasts a fumed-oak and brass handle with a stainless-steel-clad Aogami Blue Super blade. Star pieces include Funayuki, designed for preparing fish, and the Slicer, which as the name suggests, was created for slicing and carving.

Special-edition knives are also available, such as the Hunting knife, specifically designed for game, Cleaver which is perfect for butchery tasks such as cutting through bone and cartilage, and the Oyster knife, which was developed in collaboration with Oyster Boy Events.

The materials for all of the handles, whether walnut, oak or otherwise are sourced in partnership with the Bermondsey-based Goldfinch ethical furniture and milling company.

One reader will have the chance to attend a workshop to create their own knife. The Blenheim Forge workshop is open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays every week.

The team also runs knife-sharpening workshops, details of which can be found on the website. 

Competition closes Thursday 5 March. One winner will be selected at random and notified by email, and his or her name will be published at the top of this page. Entrants must be over 18 years old and the winner will be asked for proof of age. Terms and conditions apply.