Steel and fire forged Erich Orris’s future before he was 10 years old.
By Susan Alexander | Photography by Ethan Smith
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 42, Issue 2 (March/April 2026)
The love for the craft was embedded in his nature, and though he worked at different jobs and lived around the country, blacksmithing called to him. In 2020, he and his wife purchased property in Cosby, in the shadow of the Smoky Mountains. After making the old house on the property livable, he opened Fudo Forge, named after a Japanese martial arts diety, and set to work.
Though he does architectural work like wrought iron railings and contracts his services to other blacksmiths who need help filling orders, Orris’s passion is making knives, especially kitchen knives and, even more specifically, chef’s knives. He’s been making them since long before he opened his own forge.
“I always liked making knives, even when I was little,” he says. “They were awful.” His love of cooking added to the appeal of his specialty.” For almost 10 years that’s all I did until I got good. I put them in the hands of professional chefs and home cooks until I liked the way mine looked and felt. I bought most of the early ones back,” he says with a laugh.
“For a long time I worked on the geometry of it. It’s an art form but it’s also a utilitarian tool. You’ve got to have a broad knowledge of steel, and you have to have the mechanics down. It doesn’t matter how creative you are if you can’t do the mechanics,” he says.
His knives are distinguishable by his touchmark — a sort of logo at the base of the blade — depicting a knife and a flag. The choil, the end of a knife’s cutting edge near the handle, has a distinctive angle to it. The tip of his chef’s knives are clipped and angled for strength. “The geometry, the bevels are what makes it perform the best.”
Sourcing wood for his handles from around the world, gathering Turkish walnut from Istanbul, bog oak from Belarus, redwood from the Pacific Northwest, and sometimes a piece of firewood from his own woodpile. “I’m like a Hollywood talent scout looking for the most beautiful prom queen for my next movie.”
High-carbon steel. Ancient bog oak. Crafted with patience.
Using both carbon and stainless steels in his work but prefers carbon. “Carbon rusts easier but creates beautiful visual effects with its patina. Stainless is more boring but doesn’t rust as easily.” With either one his work is painstaking to create the best product he can.
“The performance of a blade is determined less by the novel of its alloy than by the quality of its forging and heat treatment,” he explains on his website “… Across all materials, thoughtful heat treatment remains the decisive factor in a blade’s longevity, edge behavior and functional integrity.”
His 2,000-square-foot shop in Cosby includes a hydraulic press on which he does most of his forging, anvils for hand-hammering, a belt grinder and a wall-full of belts of varying degrees of grit. A milling machine allows him to create holes and slots. A heat-treating oven, welding tools and a cabinet full of wood in a rainbow of shades round out the equipment.
“I think it’s a great setup for pursing my craft.”
He estimates he produces about 100 knives a year and sells them at shows around the country; he’s a member of Foothills Craft Guild locally, Southern Highlands Craft Guild, and he’s shown his work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art shows and those organized by the Smithsonian. His work is also at Bennett Gallery in Knoxville, and he sells online at www.fudoforge.com.
Reflecting on his knives, he admits “there’s a serious flaw in my business model. Once you buy one, you don’t have to buy it again. If you take care of it, your grandkids will die with it.”
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