Martin Huber

Garsten, Austria · High Performance, Handcrafted Kitchen Knives

Martin Huber

Messerschmied Huber

Martin Huber works from Austria with a background shaped by family blacksmithing, machining, and engineering traditions. His knives are built around durability, fit and finish, and practical cutting performance before moving into the more expressive side of material and surface treatment. The result is a collection of quietly luxurious kitchen knives that feel technically grounded, visually composed, and deeply rooted in European workshop craft.

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The latest from Messerschmied Huber

2 available

Recent work

Recent releases from this workshop. Each made by hand in extremely limited numbers.

About the maker

On the workshop

Martin Huber has been forging knives since the age of 16, and from a very young age it was clear that the smithy was where he wanted to spend his working life. The interest was, in his own telling, more or less inevitable: his grandfather was a blacksmith, and both of his parents worked across mechanical and automotive engineering, smithing and machining. He works today from his workshop in Garsten, Austria, where a small team supports the studio's output. The result is a practice steeped in family trade knowledge but expressed in clearly contemporary kitchen knives.

A Huber knife is recognisable for the order in which it has been built. The design begins with durability, fit and finish and performance, and only then moves outward into surface, material and decorative character. Geometry is treated as a structural decision, with edge stability and balance worked through before the more visible flourishes are introduced. Steels are selected and hardened with care, and the workshop's handle materials reach for the unusual without ever losing the discipline of a working tool. There is a quietly Austrian sensibility to the proportions — considered, controlled and free of unnecessary ornament.

What distinguishes Martin's work is the way that technical seriousness is finished with a real eye for material. Handles often draw on striking timbers and composites, but they are always resolved against the blade rather than competing with it, so the knife reads as a single object rather than two parts bolted together. The fit and finish hold up under close inspection, which is exactly what you want from a maker working in a long European smithing tradition. For Modern Cooking, Martin and his team represent a thoughtful, heirloom-quality voice in contemporary Austrian knifemaking, and we are proud to carry their work.

Steel preference

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Signature construction

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Cutting edge steel

1.2419

Low-alloy tungsten-chromium tool steel

Typical HRC
62–65
Corrosion class
Carbon
Production
Conventional
Origin
Germany (DIN 105WCr6); approximately the European 125SC family in spirit but more alloyed

1.2419 is the German tungsten-chromium tool steel that sits a clear step above the simple carbons in alloy content, with about 1.05 percent carbon, 1.0 percent chromium, and 1.1 percent tungsten. It is closely related to 1.2519 (which adds vanadium) and to its leaner sub-variant 1.2419.05.

In a kitchen knife it runs at 63–64 HRC, sharpens cleanly, and produces an edge with notably better wear resistance than W2 or 80CrV2. The W- and Cr-rich carbides do real work; toughness is good for the hardness, and patina behaviour is moderate. It is a steel that rewards a maker who can dial in heat treatment and grain control.

European bladesmiths have used 1.2419 for kitchen and outdoor knives for decades. It is well respected in the Solingen tradition and remains a credible choice for a refined carbon-edge knife. Among the makers Modern Cooking carries, Martin Huber, Karol Karyś, Fredrik Spåre, Michał Lipiński, and Birch & Bevel work in this steel. The community sometimes discusses 1.2419 in the same breath as Aogami #1 — not chemically identical, but in a similar performance neighbourhood.

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Cutting edge steel

Apex Ultra

Low-alloy fine-grain carbon tool steel

Typical HRC
64–68
Corrosion class
Carbon
Production
Conventional
Origin
Austria (developed by Tobias Hangler and Marco Guldimann; project led by Hangler at Messerschmiede Hangler)

Apex Ultra is one of the most carefully engineered non-stainless kitchen knife steels in modern circulation, and the project of an Austrian smith — Tobias Hangler — who set out, with Marco Guldimann, to design a steel for the kitchen rather than borrow one from another industry. It carries roughly 1.25 percent carbon, around four percent chromium, modest tungsten and molybdenum, and a small vanadium addition. The composition is tuned to produce a fine, evenly distributed carbide structure that supports hardness up to 67 HRC while delivering toughness comparable to 52100 at the same hardness — a combination that is the entire point of the steel.

What this means for a cook is unusual permission. You can ask a maker to grind an Apex Ultra knife thin enough that a White #1 owner would call you brave, then ask for the heat treatment to land at 65 HRC, and the resulting edge will hold for longer than Aogami Super without microchipping. It sharpens cleanly on natural and synthetic stones alike and patinas slowly because of the chromium content, though it is not stainless and should be treated as a carbon steel.

Apex Ultra has become a signature steel of the European maker community, and the Modern Cooking catalogue carries an unusually deep bench of smiths working in it. Tobias Hangler himself heads that group, alongside Marco Guldimann, Benjamin Kamon, Martin Huber, Jonas Johnsson, Karol Karyś, Birch & Bevel, and MCx. It is genuinely a step forward — one of the relatively few cases where the marketing claims and the underlying metallurgical data are saying the same thing.

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Blade construction

Laminated Steel

A category covering knives built from multiple layers of different steels forge-welded together. The hard cutting steel is sandwiched between softer outer layers (cladding) that protect the core, add toughness, and often contribute visual contrast.

The most common laminated constructions in the Modern Cooking catalogue are:

SanMai (三枚) — three layers: hard cutting steel in the centre, softer cladding on both sides. The traditional and most common form.

GoMai (五枚) — five layers: a hard core, two intermediate layers, and two outer layers. Adds visual depth and structural complexity.

KuMai (九枚) — nine layers: similar logic, with more cladding layers for additional pattern and structural variation.

GoMai and KuMai are often chosen not only for the additional layers and visual depth, but also because the intermediate layers can act as a nickel diffusion barrier — limiting carbon migration out of the core into the cladding during forge welding, and protecting the core's intended carbon content through the heat of the forging process.

In all cases the cutting performance is determined by the core steel; the outer layers are cosmetic and structural. The lamination contributes corrosion protection (when a stainless jacket clads a carbon core), reduced reactivity, and the visible boundary between core and cladding that gives the knife its character.

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Blade construction

Damascus

Pattern-welded steel — multiple layers of different alloys forge-welded, then folded, twisted, ladder-cut, or otherwise manipulated to expose the layer interfaces in a visible pattern. The pattern is revealed by acid etching, which preferentially attacks one of the two steels in the laminate.

Damascus is a construction technique rather than a single steel. The cutting performance is determined by which steel forms the cutting edge — often a clad core in Japanese damascus knives, occasionally the harder of the two laminate steels in full-damascus Western work. A beautiful damascus pattern is a craft achievement; it does not on its own tell the buyer how the knife will cut. A good maker lists both the pattern and the core steel.

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Limited release

Reserve your place

Martin Huber's work is highly sought-after for its distinctive combination of craftsmanship, performance, and design, with each piece produced by hand in extremely limited numbers — a pace of production that naturally cannot keep up with demand.

For those hoping to secure a piece through Modern Cooking, joining the waitlist is the best way to register your interest in Martin's work and share your preferred dimensions, design preferences, and intended use. As opportunities become available, we use this information to guide future allocations with care and consideration.

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