Week of April 26-May 2
4/26/25
Great day with Rich! Today was Damascus. He had never done Damascus and wanted to learn the process. So we did a low layer billet, starting with 7 layers of 1095 and 15n20, and folded it once before shaping the blade. That way he got the whole learning experience. It's a beautiful knife, and a very dramatic pattern! Rich is a woodworker as well, so he will put the handles on both knives at home.
His girlfriend came up for the weekend from Ohio with him. She stopped in the forge today, and watched some of the Glass Blowers Battle at Glass Arts Kalamazoo while Rich finished up his knife.
4/27/25
What a fantastic family at the forge this afternoon! These guys were awesome, and made great Railroad spike knives!!
4/29/25
It was some belated birthday knifemaking this afternoon in the forge! This young man turned 12 years old recently. He did really well with hammering and grinding and was excellent at learning techniques!
4/29/25
Father & Son bonding tonight! These two came from the eastside of the state to forge their first knives. Nice pair. And another example that it's never to late to learn how to do something you've always wanted to! (I'll give you 2 guesses which one is 80 years old. But still not the oldest we've had in the forge.)
4/30/25
This family was a lot of fun! They made beautiful knives. I definitely think we'll be seeing then again.
4/30/25
Joshua was back tonight and brought his friend, Adam, to make Railroad Spike Knives! They were a lot of fun! And their knives are super sharp!
5/1/25
Last day of Level 1 homeschool class for the 11-13 yr olds! Had to get one more taper in, so they made Scary Cheese Knives today. It ties pretty much everything they learned this year into one project. This was a great group of kids! And we will be seeing all of them in the fall when they come back for Level 2!
