High quality materials and kit includes everything you need to complete a professional quality knife. I had two minor problems in assembling my knife.
1. The vice has a problem with the ball joint. There is a mold line on the ball that protrudes above the surface of the ball. This interferes with the smooth functioning of the joint. A little filing to smooth it will fix it.
2. The scales provided are way too big, necessitating a LOT of grunt work filing them down. Best to mark the outline of the tang, leaving an extra 1/4” or so. Then trim the scales with a hacksaw or other fine toothed saw, then glue the scales in place.

Wow! Just received the Damascus Steel Chef Knife crate for Christmas. This is the best gift ever. I've always been interested in knives and knife making but do not have the equipment or skills to forge my one. This kit allows you to experience part of the creative process and comes complete with everything you need to make a beautiful (and super high quality) Damascus steel chef knife. I will begin making mine tomorrow. I highly recommend this high quality kit for anyone looking to give that unique jaw-dropping gift, or a gift for that creative person in your life.

Got this for the Mister as a Christmas present so he hasn't seen it yet, BUT I opened to make sure all the goodies were there (they are) and I was very impressed with the quality of the knife blade itself and the set of hand tools. When the accessory box seemed to have some weight to it, I knew they were well made. I can't wait until he opens it and gets going on it. Definitely will be back in a couple months for a hands on review.

Forget the files.. Micarta is too hard.
With the included files/rasp it makes a good project for a 20 year to lifer. With nothing else to do.
A Rotary tool with sanding spindle needs to be included

Got this for a father’s day present from my rich son. I’m 77. The micarta for the handle is very hard. If I had not switched to my bandsaw, belt sander, and Dremel tool, I would have been out of life expectancy.
Nice portable vise. Suggest you at least include the dremel tool.

The blade itself is amazing but the tools are not quite so good and the finish wasn’t as good as it looks in the pictures. Solved the tool issue by using my own and solved the finish issue by spraying with poly. For the money my wife paid I would have expected better tools and some kind of stain or polyurethane to come with it so it doesn’t just look like sanded wood but it was still fun.

The rasp seemed unable to remove enough material. The vice is poorly designed as some part of the vice was always coming loose during material removal ( either the ball joint, the vice sectio or where the vice attaches to a table).

Very frustrating.

Fun to make the knife, but the pieces don’t fit together. The pins are way too big for the drill bit provided, resulting in holes in the handle that are too small for the pins. The instructions make no mention of this or how to handle it.

I decided to file the pins down a small amount and tap them in with a mallet. After filing the pins down, I still need excessive force to get them into the knife handle. This ended up cracking the Micarta scales straight through to the tang.

Disappointing assembly experience and now I’ve got a big crack through my handle that no amount of filing will fix.

After making the knife and let me start with when I say making the knife I mean putting a handle on it. With regular use, the tip has bent and the edge has rolls on it. I am very unhappy with the kit.