[@Marx], I guess untrained would work, he has knowledge of the skill, and is aware of it, but has yet to put in any considerable amount of practice. At the same time, you are correct in that the applicant pool has a lot more magical talent than I had expected/liked. In the end, I'll leave it to your discretion. Novice storyteller sounds fine.

Those are all very good reasons, but again, Mithril is known for its magical properties, and is highly valuable- unless you were an 'old money' type of business, or had a nobleman for a patron, it'd be unlikely that you'd be able to afford mithril. Also keep in mind the idea of the 'prestige' of Mithril, very few blacksmiths who pride themselves in being able to forge mithril- and afford to obtain mithril, will settle for making a little kitchen knife. 

This being said, Mithril, Adamantium, and Ironwood, arent the only fantasy materials in play. Just as well, there are plenty of other stronger-than-regular-steel materials as well (that I had admittedly failed to mention). I leave a lot of lore very open so players can come up with things as they please. To throw some more examples out: meteoric metal, Orihalcum, Varyan Steel (Overal superior steel from the the Varyans), black-steel. To name a few. 

If your character's tavern wanted to invest in high quality knives, they might invest in Varyan Steel knives, not the cheapest purchase, but quite durable and sharp- and more commonplace than mithril, and the tavern would probably be able to afford Ash's entire set of knives to be forged of Varyan Steel.

(Also, I intend on introducing the more valuable materials, such as mithril and adamantium throughout the story- so I feel as though it would feel more impressive if fewer players had access to such material.)