Fredrik Spåre

For Fredrik Spåre, knife making began as a way to bond with his father — a simple weekend knife-making course in the 1990s. The process of creating something from raw steel and wood took hold immediately, and over time the hobby developed into a serious practice. He made kitchen and hunting knives for friends and family for years before knife making became his profession, and that long, unforced arc is still visible in the way the workshop operates today. Based in Örebro, Sweden, Fredrik now focuses mainly on kitchen knives, with the patient cadence of a maker who arrived at full-time work by accumulation rather than by leap.

From start to finish, every step is completed in house: steel making and forging, grinding and sharpening, handle construction and fitting. Fredrik works mostly with Swedish steel from Uddeholm and Sandvik, paired with locally sourced handle materials, and the resulting knives carry a clear sense of regional grounding without leaning on it for effect. Recurring details across the range include hand-hammered bolsters and high-performance geometry, with his honyaki and mono steel blades pushed to ultra-high HRC — an approach that demands precise heat treatment and rewards careful sharpening with very stable, keen edges over long use.

What stands out in Fredrik's work, from our experience at Modern Cooking, is the combination of premium fit and finish, artisan design and genuine cutting performance held at an accessible point. The knives are unshowy, technically capable, and clearly the product of a maker who controls every step of his own process. For the Collectors Selection, his work offers a Swedish counterpoint to the European and Japanese-influenced makers in the catalogue: regional steels, in-house process, and quietly confident kitchen tools that reward serious use without asking to be treated as anything other than what they are.