Martin Huber

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.