Teaching, tools and knives... Oh My!

What a crazy month October was. So crazy in fact, I only posted one update to the website in that time. Time to get back on top of it and keep this thing dusted off. The past 30 days have been a fury of forging items in the shop, along with a influx of students taking classes and some knives being made.

 

K.S.K. in 5/32" thick D2 is on the bench. If you're wanting a knife to give as a gift for Christmas, order cut off date in November 20th. I will be making a few knives for the store as well if you want to chance it and see what becomes available.

 

 

A 18th century "Soldiers Ration" dinner. We made this before the annual Kings Mountain Revolutionary War Weekend. Pretty tasty. Lightly salted pork, ships biscuit, some buttered pan fried pumpkin and one roasted in the coals full of pears and cinnamon. 

 

 

Forged in 15 minute knife. When ever a knife making student is here, I forged on knife to show them the difference in work flow compared to stock removal.

 

 

Chris and his very first knife.

 

Knifemaking 101 knife made by Chris. He was a fun student to have in the shop and took home a pretty cool knife.

 

 

Nothing like this cooler weather that is coming along with fall to make these fire pit evening amazing.

 

 

Bottle opener meat fork.

 

 

Hammers are often abused in my shop and I rarely touch them up, but it did happen! They look so nice and are smooth again.

 

 

Punching the hole in a hammer making class.

 

 

Ryan booked a hammer making class for Kimberly here and together they worked hard throughout the day forging her a birthday hammer! They were excellent to work with and each took home a fine rounding hammer.

 

 

Drifting the eye!

 

 

This is the second hammer we made that day.

 

 

Rick mid-way through a forged horse head bottle opener during a Blacksmithing 101 class here in the shop.

 

 

We ended his class with a crash course in tool making and he took home a few punches to help him continue on his journey!

 

 

Prototype Finger Hole Cleavers. Making a pair to begin with, but this is blank  is done and boy is that hole a pain to make.

 

 

The look ahead. The 3 on the left are not spoken for currently.

 

 

Ruck training is in effect, so some pipes got filled with a 1" steel bar and wet sand. Ought to compliment my ruck sack full-o-bricks well.

 

 

Nothing like a cold brew to finish the day. I hosted 4 classes this last month and so far have enjoyed it immensely. I'm getting the chance to share what I've learned with others and also have a blast forging some fun things. November is a short month and I'll be focusing on knives for a bit, but I am sure some more people will find there way to the shop!

 

 

-JG