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I Forge Iron

Return of the Knife Chat


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Rich Hale and I have been talking about the requests for doing knife chat again, like we did 4 years ago, (reposts from those are still in the knife section) so after some thinking and a maybe a few too many hot days under the sun, We have agreed to do round 2 of the "Knife Chat". We are getting things ready and in a few months we will post the dates.

One major change this time will be that the attending members will not just watch and chat but they will be an active part, because we will have homework assignments. As the weeks progress so will the members skill levels. They will send Rich and I photos of the their work to privately assess so as not to embarrass anyone, and based on what we see the class does, address issues from those assignments for the next chats.

This is as close as you can get to a one on one training session for many of you. We wish to help people learn to make the best blades they can. In the forums have been photo's of some good starts, but obvious issues (to Rich and I anyway) preventing them from being as good as they could have been. So plan to address those issues along with solutions! Rich and I will be covering both high-tech and No-tech solutions to appeal to all abilities and resources. As usual, this is open to anyone with basic smithing skills, and there is NO fee for these classes.

Let us know what you have in mind and we will see what we can do.

Rich Hale
Steve Sells

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This will be awesome. I look forward to receiving more knowledge from two obviously well versed smith's! My work has improved ten fold since I Joined this site. I owe most of my successes to this site. It's overwhelming how kind and willing all of you are to share knowledge and information! KUDO'S to all of you who have contributed to my learning. Thanks so much to Steve Sells and Rich Hale for getting this chat up and running. I highly encourage all new smiths young and old to participate and help make a great thing ever better!

Darren Robichaud, Loneforge Blades

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This is not going to be one of those classes that if you do not keep up you are out. The things we do will be posted, If you miss a class just print out the info and when you can, work on that part. I suggest you keep a folder with the print outs so at any time you can pick it right back up where you left off. And if you send us pvt pic of your work we will offer our thoughts. Even if it is from a class that happened a few months back.

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I miss the rains down in Africa........Oh that's bad! 2Tim215 you are one of us and we love your work. I also have the feeling this new program by Steve Sells and Rich Hale will be a big success. All of our support is needed so spread the word!

Cheers once again for all the help and leadership. IFI Rocks and so do all of it's members! You know who you are! :)


Darren Robichaud, Loneforge Blades

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  • 2 weeks later...

Awesome ,hammer is in hand waiting your instructions teachers.im from Sydney in oz and I have learnt everything from this site and just havin a go,I can't find anyone nearby to learn off or even just watch through a window sneakily it can be frustrating but being able to take a class off you fellas will be great,can't wait my new gas forge I'm workin on should be ready by then bring it on.


Cheers Gibbo

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Steve and Rich; I would like to pursue some beginning exercises in differential hardening. I'd like to try to create a nice hamon. This is something I have not done and that I think I would enjoy. i'd like to begin with something in stock steel (rather than pattern welded steel). I have done differential tempering which works very well but does not seem to have the traditional magic about it that differential hardening does. Just a suggestion... I'll try to participate in WHATEVER you are teaching!

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Big, we have a plan and will start with basics, and move forward. We have quite a lot of things we will cover from the beginning. We also expect that there will be folks with different needs or desires and we hope to remain ready to help with those needs. Some of the folks that have nto lit a fire yet will feel we go too fast and it will bog them down. We will post each session for review so those folks can move on...even if they get a few weeks behind they can keep moving if they wish. For those that are making knives and are ready for advanced items it will seem like we are spending wayyyyy to much time on things they already have well in hand. And we may have to take a nite now and then to go back and cover some items again if there are folks stuck wiith the info we have given.

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Knife chat update:
Just a few notes to keep everyone updated on this series; You do not have to join or sign up for this. We will post the times and dates and show up or not,,,The things we describe and the pics we post will be on the site for you at any time you wish. We will ask that yoiu follow wot we do by doing the same in your own shop. that is the homework we mentioned. This is not a mandatory expercise for you. If you do not wish to do this don't. We do feel that those that do wot we do will move on in a rather organized fashion that will help them grow. There are no grades. Those that wish to send in pics for us to review we will give our honest comments in two ways. You can send them to us and ask that we post them for everyone to see or yoiu can send them to us in private and we will reply in private. Your call.
We fully expect this to be a well attended houir and that will make it really important for us to be able to keep on track with wot we have for that evening. When the session is posted there will be a time frame for you to post questions or comments. We will try and answer all of those in a timely manner.
Steve and I have a common interest in this project .We would like to see those of you that have a desire to become a blade maker or a better blade maker succeed. If yoiu have never forged anything when this begins we will offer things that will help yoiu at yoiur level. If yoiu are looking to fine tune your work we will offer that also. Our reward will be seeing the growth of the folks that participate.

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I am an older guy (75) and know the basics of forgeing and knife making. I have not been able to go to any of the hammer ins or knife schools. I am sort of slow working the internet and have some trouble navigating around these chat rooms. It took me most of the morning to get this far sending a message. I sure do hope that you get this and I am able to get back here to become a member of the group for further instructions. I am looking forward to reading more in the near future.

Denis.

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Welcome aboard Denis, glad to have you.

A good way to make it easy to find your way back to a specific location is to put a "shortcut" on your desktop. Simply put the cursor on the little icon thingy on the left side of the address in the address bar above the window you're reading my ramblings in right now. Click, hold the button down drag it to the desktop and let up on the button. Now you have a shortcut button on the desktop all you need to do to get back is double click it and viola! Oh yeah, reduce the page size to half when you do the drag and drop so you can see the desktop around the page.

Item two. If you'll put your general location in your header you might be happily surprised at how many folk on IforgeIron live within easy visiting distance. Yeah, that's right we're EVERYWHERE! IFI is represented by members in I don't know how many countries but all over the planet and thousands of folk in this hemisphere.

This is kind of tied into the where are you thing but I know some De Priests, you wouldn't happen to live in Alaska would you? Seriously, we buy our hay from Ray De Priest in the Palmer neighborhood. If you're anywhere near that close we'll just have to hook up and I'll give you a beginners course in forging, forge making, tool making, etc. I'm always looking for more playmates you know. Oh yeah, I'll sign you up in the local smithing club. Heck, Metalmangler lives over Butte way and is a professional smith. closer and a better instructor, hard to beat eh?

Frosty The Lucky.

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I am excited and pleased that you are going to provide another opportunity for people to discover and be presented with face to face information of the skills required in Blade making.

To obtain the fundamental tools that would be required to make a simple basic knife is a small price to pay to get a good start in the craft.
Then all they will have to do is put into practice what is presented to them.

It is rare in this day-in-age to find this kind of opportunity that will to be presented openly, freely, but not cheaply for anyone who takes the effort and has the interest to be in attendance.
I know the instructors have put in years of study and practice, not to count the money and sacrifice of the priority of the use of their time to master their skills.

We found in the past, that if a person is respectful to the presenters who are highly trained knife makers that are moderating and teaching the skills, they will spare no secrets about the craft.

A Problem: More than a few times we have had people over estimate how much personal knowledge they had acquired. And then they give out incorrect or dangerous information as though it was reliable information.

A bigger problem: And all too many times when we have highly skilled craftsman (who have established their credibility) try to correct bogus information presented by un-skilled people, many have become disrespectful and argumentative. An attitude of this kind will waist everyone’s valuable time.

Bottom Line: Well thought out questions, that are presented in a respectful manner that are given to the presenters and other students in the training chat room is of paramount importance.

I hope for all who take advantage of this opportunity that they will share this valuable information with others when the timing is right.

My best to all of you!

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