Most knives are made on CNC machines these days, and while I appreciate and respect the craft of blacksmith (and will never forgive my father for selling my grandfather's anvil), iron, steel, alloys, and heat-treating are very well understood these days, and one can make a quite nice knife, even with just a desktop CNC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_DnkEnhZPM (see the balance of that video series for the actual process of manufacture) William