Sharing the Joy of Bladesmithing

When I take my dog to the dog park, I sometimes bring my spoon carving tools and some wood.  It leads to interesting conversations at times.  (Spoon carving thing is possibly the least threatening thing you can do with a sharp blade in a public place.)  One of the times I was there last summer, I met a woman who was very interested in the craft of making the blades.  We talked, I invited her to come make a knife when my schooling settled down.  Yesterday, she took me up on it and brought her husband and daughter to do it, too.

In the early stages, here are her daughter's hands working on a knife.

The dog part friend's hands working on hers.

I didn't get a picture of her husband forging his, but he really enjoyed it.

The completed knives.  I made two of these, one as an example so I could point out where we were heading, the other to demonstrate each step of the process.

I really like these little blacksmith knives for a first knife project.  They are sort of primitive, but they can be made start to finish in one day, the all-steel construction allows for some blacksmithing creativity in the design, and they are just a fun thing to make.  I normally suggest to people that they use them as steak knives.  It is fun to use a tool you made yourself.

At the end of the day, everyone was tired from all the hard work, but I think we all had a pretty good time.