Week of February 1 - 7
2/1/25
The first class of February was with Kyle and Isaac. Kyle and his son have done several classes with us. Now they were ready to start damascus. Damascus takes a few sessions to complete. In the first couple sessions, they made their damascus steel, starting with their initial pieces of steel, forge welding them, folding it over, and then repeating to get to the number of layers you want.. Kyle decided on 115 layers, and Isaac did 111.
In the next session, they finished hammering, got through grinding, and then heat treated. Then we did a motivational acid dip. Beautiful pattern on both of them! In the last session, they finished their damascus knives. Kyle made a cleaver, while Isaac made a Bowie knife with a copper guard. Both handles are made from sapele wood that they brought from home. They are beautiful!
2/4/25
Fun morning with Alexandra and Bianca! They are part of the touring crew of The Lion King, in town for the performances at Miller Auditorium. They used their morning off to come to the forge and make Railroad Spike Knives. Fun time and beautiful knives!
2/4/25
Date night at the forge for these two! They both did a tanto style blade with the tactical handle. He went with a matte finish, and she did a mirror finish. And yes, you can see it from space. They got to be the first students to try the new forge touchmark! Yes, it's back!
2/5/25
Alex was back tonight to start working on his first Billet knife! It started out as a Japanese style chef knife, but Alex put his own twist and style to it, because it's his knife and he can. That's the beauty of making your own knife. Next week he will do the finish sanding and handle work.
