Kevin Cross
Well-Known Member
A gentleman I have known for about 15 years recently asked me to come and speak to his "Club 60" group.
He knew about my knife hobby and said nobody had ever talked to them about anything like this before.
So on Monday afternoon I went over and talked to about 55 of them. I had a blast!
I started out by telling them that there used to be a sword maker in our town that had the first US government sword contract back in 1799 and then showed them one of his naval sabres from 1808. Then I talked about how some things had changed but really it was still about banging on hot steel and grinding on steel.
I took billets, profiled blanks, blanks after heat treat and rough grind, handle materials and various pieces of brass and rods, and several examples of finished knives including both hunting and kitchen blades. (Kind of like what Randall did on their display board).
I guess I must have talked and answered questions for about 45 minutes and then I invited them up to the table to look at the knives while they had refreshments. Several of the men were retired engineers and machine operators from Pratt and Whitney and they came up and we all talked for another half hour or so.
The next day one of the people that was there contacted me and asked me if I would be willing to put my knives on display in the Spring show of the local art guild. Now I'm gonna have to make some pretty ones!
Kevin
He knew about my knife hobby and said nobody had ever talked to them about anything like this before.
So on Monday afternoon I went over and talked to about 55 of them. I had a blast!
I started out by telling them that there used to be a sword maker in our town that had the first US government sword contract back in 1799 and then showed them one of his naval sabres from 1808. Then I talked about how some things had changed but really it was still about banging on hot steel and grinding on steel.
I took billets, profiled blanks, blanks after heat treat and rough grind, handle materials and various pieces of brass and rods, and several examples of finished knives including both hunting and kitchen blades. (Kind of like what Randall did on their display board).
I guess I must have talked and answered questions for about 45 minutes and then I invited them up to the table to look at the knives while they had refreshments. Several of the men were retired engineers and machine operators from Pratt and Whitney and they came up and we all talked for another half hour or so.
The next day one of the people that was there contacted me and asked me if I would be willing to put my knives on display in the Spring show of the local art guild. Now I'm gonna have to make some pretty ones!
Kevin
