The Kitchen Bladesmith
22nd February 2015
Kramer is one of 113 people in the world, and the only former chef, to be certified as a Master Bladesmith. To earn this title (which is conferred by the American Bladesmith Society, of Texarkana, Texas), Kramer underwent five years of practice and study, culminating in the manufacture, through hand-forging, of six knives. Five had to be of gallery-quality designs; the fifth was a roughly finished, fifteen-inch Bowie knife, which Kramer had to employ to accomplish four tasks, in this order: Cut through a one-inch thick piece of manila rope in a single swipe; chop through a two-by-four, twice; place the blade on one’s forearm and, with the belly of the blade that has done all this chopping, shave; and finally, lock the knife in a vice and bend it ninety degrees without having it crack. The combination of these challenges tests steel’s central but conflicting capabilities: its flexibility and its hardness. If tested thusly, my boning knife, despite being hand-made, would have snapped like a toothpick. – See more at: http://craftsmanship.net/the-kitchen-bladesmith/#sthash.e1F8V1fV.dpuf
A fascinating look at knives and the people who make them.
February 22nd, 2015 at 23:08
Knifemaking is a hobby of mine, though I honestly haven’t spent much time on it in the last couple of years. From time to time, the local knifemakers will get together for a “hammer-in” and make stuff or experiment or just show off things they’ve come across. At one of them, the host made several blades and purposely messed up the heat treatment so we could look at the grain structure. That guy had sacks of iron ore and a ‘possum made a home under the ore. Scared him when it came out one night as the ore had turned him red. Cutting through a free-hanging rope or through a series of water bottles can be a surprising challenge even for a skilled knifemaker.
Many of these local knifemakers produced custom blades that were sent to our troops in the Sandbox. One officer (now a major) used his blade to chop through a 9 inch thick adobe wall to make a gun port and the next day he loaned it to some Special Forces guys who were having trouble skinning a goat with their gov’t issue knives and they were shocked at how much better it was. (That blade was made from 5160, sometimes referred to as “old Chevy spring” because they used to use it in truck springs.)
Knifemaking goes back a long way (see Genesis 4:22) but is as complex and geeky as any computer system.