Introductory Courses

The 1-day course involves forging a knife to shape, heat treating and grinding and then applying a handle.  The course is geared towards finishing the knife but not all individuals may fully finish and any that don't finish can take the handle material home to finish on their own time.  

The 2-day course is much more involved and you dive deeper into each aspect of knife making.  You will take home a finished blade in this course.  

All materials are provided.  You will learn the basics of forging and moving steel.  The concepts of heat treating and basic metallurgy.   You'll have a great time, learn a ton and take home your project!

Note:  You need no prior experience for this.  Class maximum is four people. 

Probably my most popular technique is the copper layered damascus.  We'll make some damascus that we'll use as the cladding and then combine it with copper and some other high carbon steel as the core into a copper damascus billet.  The damascus pattern can be a variety of patterns that we'll discuss during your course.  

You'll learn how to create this amazing and striking pattern and all the do's and don'ts about it.  The course includes all the material to make a copper damascus billet that we'll make throughout the weekend that you'll take home.

Note:  This class assumes you already know the basics of forging.  This is not an introductory course in bladesmithing. 

The feather pattern is a challenging one but one of my most favorite.  There are dimensions during the forge welding and shaping that make this a challenging build to get right.   It also requires a lot of care to ensure you don't rip the billet apart during the forging process.

You'll learn how to create this complex pattern and all the do's and don'ts about it.  The course includes all the material to make a feather damascus billet that we'll make throughout the weekend that you'll take home.   Typically this is enough steel to make 2 knives out of.

Note:  This class assumes you already know the basics of forging.  This is not an introductory course in bladesmithing. 

Mosaics can be the most beautiful patterns out there.  The combinations are endless, but for this course we'll concentrate on variations of the "explosion" pattern.  This pattern requires precise forging of the billet to reduce the distortion to ensure a flowing pattern and you'll learn all this along with techniques like forge welding and layout.  

You'll learn how to create this complex pattern and all the do's and don'ts about it.  The course includes all the material to make a mosaic damascus billet that we'll make throughout the weekend that you'll take home.

Note:  This class assumes you already know the basics of forging.  This is not an introductory course in bladesmithing.