Forging Ahead
Knives Illustrated|November 2017

The Road to Smithing Your Own Blades

Gordon Meehl
Forging Ahead

We’ve all felt it. Whether it was last month or decades ago, in our less grounded youth, we’ve all felt the innate, almost preternatural drive to render raw materials into something with a purposeful design. Some say it’s that drive to make tools and weapons that makes us uniquely human. I say what makes us truly human is not our drive to make weapons, but the romantic vision that these weapons are capable of holding inside them the best qualities of humanity. It’s that vision that stirs many lovers of the sharpened edge to begin learning the timeless art of bladesmithing. In the following story, you’ll get an introduction to this art.

The Art of Smithing

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