The blacksmithing committee has been asked a number of times to teach a knife making class. I’ve just put up a class on the schedule on 1/24/23 to make a knife out of a RR spike using the same tools we use to make and teach a chisel making class. This includes the induction forge, the hydraulic press and the KMG grinder. (Normally we teach the cutoff saw, too so we will be cutting some band saw blade steel to make another kind of knife, but we will NOT be making the band saw blade knife in class. Just getting familiar with the cutoff saw.).
These are the details on the class. It is a $10 class. You will be given a RR spike at the start of class.
So let’s say hypothetically you’re already checked out on everything in blacksmithing and you just want to make a railroad spike knife, would it be cool to sign up for this class?
Tonight we completed our very first railroad spike knife making class using the induction forge, hydraulic press and KMG grinder. Truth is we’ve taught parts of this class before. We started a RR spike knife making class on the anvil and propane forge outside but finished up inside using the tools we used tonight.
We didn’t have five students then though.
There were five students in the class tonight and I think the class went pretty well, however, no one really finished their knife due to a lack of time. (We also left at 9:45PM in part due to weather and driving concerns, too) They all had to cycle through using the forge and the press. It took some time to do this.
Five students is a lot using the induction forge in succession. Lots of reheats were necessary. No one really got a chance to finish up on the KMG grinder, but I was able to teach all of the tools.
The primary purpose of this class is to familiarize the students with the tools in the blacksmithing shop while making a project and to not necessarily finish the project. They can all finish up at their leisure now that they are familiar with the tools.
There are some aspects of the class I’m going to curtail in the next class though and perhaps permit more time for students to work on their knives. We all learned some things tonight including me.
All in all a great start to the “knife making journey”.
For those in the class that were curious about the safety glasses I used with the ear protection and the side shields they are on sale at Rockler right now:
I’ve just created another RR Spike knife making class which will be taught on Tuesday the 31st at 7PM. I’m a little unsure of when it will appear on the calendar. Sometimes it is very quick and sometimes it takes a couple of days. @MadScists , @Daniel, @Jadam I reduced the number of students to four based upon yesterday’s class. There was just not enough time for five people to complete their knives.
I’ve also eliminated the detailed explanation of the nature of knife steels and instead I’ve attached a file called the “carbon myth” to the event which explains the RR Spike steel characteristics and why it isn’t the greatest knife steel. RR Spike knives are, however, very popular. The document is also attached below.
As it turns out, I copied the event from the previous event and neglected to reduce the number of available slots. There are, as a consequence, five slots in the class. There are still two remaining.
All, @jbrown885 the RR SPIKE KNIFE class has been CANCELED for tonight. I’ve canceled the class on the event calendar and notified all of the students via email. They should receive their money back from the cancellation, correct? I canceled the class due to the inclement weather. One of the students notified me that they probably couldn’t get to DMS from Ponder this evening.
I’m going to reschedule the class for another evening, hopefully soon.
We had a makeup class last night for the class originally scheduled during our ice storm. Everyone that was able made up the class. A couple of people had problems making the class due to illness, but others were able to take advantage of the open slots and the class had four students.
We had one student with an issue with his twist which caused a crack in his blade. I gave him a second spike so hopefully he will have an opportunity to create another knife.
@hforsberg one of the students last night, posted his knife here:
In addition @Grant_Adams picked up some new tongs and sanding belts from:
@artg_dms was kind enough to setup an account with them and order everything, Grant picked up, for us on his DFS credit card. Thank you Art! We used almost everything last night. It is most appreciated.
Lastly, I will not be teaching a knife class for the next two Tuesdays. Next Tuesday is Valentines and my wife has other plans. The following Tuesday is the 21st which is our blacksmithing committee meeting at 7:00PM at DMS. Here are some other notable blacksmithing dates.
Open Forge Date is Sunday 2/26/2023 @ 10:00AM.
Open Forge Project Horseshoe Heart
Induction Forge Date 2/28/23,@ 7:00PM
Induction Forge Training Project RR Spike Knife
