Back from Handle & Guards class with Jim Rodebaugh, MS...

TacticallySharp

TacticallySharp

KNIFE MAKER
Got back from the ABS Handles & Guards class in North Carolina at Haywood Community College with Mastersmith Jim Rodebaugh. This was a great week of instruction. Jim first did an demo on precision forging and took part of the forging myth away. He explained that keeping the ricaso square was the secret to making a good knife. His explanation was based on a set of methods which created a foundation to work from. Rodebaugh taught us to build on that foundation to create our Handles & Guards. The course showed us how to apply our methods to whatever type of knife we were working on. Of interest to me was how to create a hidden tang's guard and handle which would comfortably fit the hand and help keep the knife from slipping out of the users grip.

Jim proved to be an exceptional instructor which loves the craft and enjoys sharing his knowledge and helping his students become better bladesmiths overall. I highly recommend the Handles & Guards class with Jim Rodebaugh, MS at the ABS program on Haywood Community College's campus.

I would like to give special thanks to Bill Wiggins for his assistance in the class and the hospitality he showed us at his shop. Also Bill had some great places for lunch. I included just a few of the photos I took for you to view.

Thank you,

George

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Could you explain a little about keeping the ricasso square? Would that include keeping the plunge line perpendicular to the profile, or are you talking mostly about where the ricasso may flow into a choil?

I would very much love to take some of those courses one day, but until then I'll happily leech vicariously off anything y'all will share!
 
Basically you keep the ricaso area off the anvil when hammering the blade form. The spine and plunge lines are perpendicular and the ricaso is square.. We talked about the golden rule and 3 to 5 proportion, we also discussed when to leave the rule behind. You want the shoulders square and the blade centered. I've attached a photo of one of Jim's early knives that shows a squared ricaso. Today his knives have about 1/3 less ricaso area in general.

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TacticallySharp said:
Basically you keep the ricaso area off the anvil when hammering the blade form. The spine and plunge lines are perpendicular and the ricaso is square.. We talked about the golden rule and 3 to 5 proportion, we also discussed when to leave the rule behind. You want the shoulders square and the blade centered. I've attached a photo of one of Jim's early knives that shows a squared ricaso. Today his knives have about 1/3 less ricaso area in general.

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Click to expand...

Okay, I'm adding that to the notes file, thank you! ... and I'm sorry to bug you; what's the 3 to 5 rule?
 
Dogs,

I got over 100 photos, 4 videos, and 6 pages of notes from this class. Jim is an exceptional instructor. If you ever get to take a class with him you will get a lot of information and value from it. Well worth the 15 hour drive to the class.
 
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