Rustic Knife Class

We did a fun thing this weekend: we took a Rustic Knife Class with the Palmer Folk School. They are a local blacksmith and his family who are promoting such skills as blacksmithing, leatherwork, broom making, and the like. I ran across their advertisement a few weeks ago and thought it was about time for Bryan and I to do something unique together.

We had so much fun! It was hard work, though – I really do not have much strength in my arms/hands, so had to have more help than Bryan did. Jack, the blacksmith teaching the class, was very helpful and was a good teacher.

We started with a piece of metal in a trapezoidal shape. We heated it up till it was glowing red hot. Then we beat on it with a sledgehammer. Then just kept repeating the process (heat it up – beat it up – heat it up – beat it up) until we ended up with something that vaguely resembles a knife’s blade.

The handle is made from a block of wood. We poked a hole it in and attached it to our knife. Now all we need to do is sand it down so it fits our hands and then stain it a nice color. Of course, we also have to work on the blade a bit, sharpening it so it’s usable.

But how cool is that = we now have knives that we made by our own hands!