Karl Broch Jacobsen

Karl Broch Jacobsen grew up in a family deeply invested in the arts, and that environment shaped him early. At eight, with his father's help, he built a small coal forge and made his first piece, a twisted picture hook. By thirteen he had taken over the family garage and built a more capable forge of his own, expanding the setup over the years with belt grinders and a power hammer. Now eighteen and working full-time as a bladesmith from Svendborg in Denmark, Karl has channelled that decade of practice into culinary knives, with Broch Blades emerging as a serious young name in European bladesmithing.

The design philosophy is performance-led and Japanese-inspired, built around carefully forged geometries rather than decorative gestures. Karl works primarily in premium carbon steels including 135Cr3 and Apex Ultra, often constructed as San Mai with various cladding materials such as Damascus and wrought iron. He prefers locally sourced European materials for the rest of the knife: oak, bog oak and masur birch appear frequently for handles and saya, grounding each piece in a regional palette. The combinations feel deliberate rather than fashionable, with each material chosen for what it brings to the finished tool.

Karl has plans to travel and train with European and Japanese masters in the coming years, which suggests where this practice is headed. For now, the work already on the bench is exceptional, with examples we have handled that read as considerably more mature than his age suggests. For Modern Cooking, Broch Blades is a welcome addition to our Collectors Selection: a young maker whose craft is grounded, whose materials are honest, and whose trajectory is one we are genuinely glad to be alongside. The knives are quietly serious, and they reward serious attention.